


Tears on the Balcony

by unknowableroom_archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Humor, Marauders' Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-03-23
Updated: 2007-05-30
Packaged: 2019-01-19 07:38:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 42,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12405960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unknowableroom_archivist/pseuds/unknowableroom_archivist
Summary: Lily & James have vowed to hate each other ever since their initial meeting took a wrong turn in their first year. After a shocking goodbye at the end of their 6th year, are things going to be any different in their 7th year when they are forced to work together as the Heads of the school? Somewhat AU.





	1. Of Parties, Roommates, & Strip Poker

**Author's Note:**

> Note from ChristyCorr, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Unknowable Room](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Unknowable_Room), a Harry Potter archive active from 2005-2016. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project after May 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Unknowable Room collection profile](http://www.archiveofourown.org/collections/unknowableroom).

**A/N:** This is obviously a L/J fic because they’re my favorite but it’s a lot about Sirius, Remus, Peter, and Lily’s two friends as well. The plot is actually somewhat based on a bunch of true stories from my friends all combined together but obviously I've added some liberty to it. I hope you like the comedy and the romance and please read and review! This is somewhat of an AU because Lily and James don't get together until later in the 7th year and I've tweaked a few others parts as well. Please enjoy! 

**Tears on the Balcony**

By ByeByeBirdie

Chapter 1: Of Parties, Roommates, and Strip Poker

 

&&&&&&&&&&&&

“OY, JAMES!” a familiar voice cried out over the grounds for everyone to hear.

James Potter sighed, turning away from the only thing that’s been on his mind for the past few years, and chuckled at the sight of Sirius Black galloping across the grass, smiling and winking at all of the gawking girls along the way. 

“What do you want Padfoot?” James asked when Sirius approached him with a rather sly and mischievous grin on his face. 

Sirius gladly plopped down beside James, leaning against the willow tree where James happened to be sitting and turned to James with a very jesting smile on his face. “Well as you know, the end of the year feast is tonight and, again, as you know, Gryffindor is being given the Quidditch cup and probably the House Cup so, as you should know, a party will most definitely be held in our commons room and-“

“Sirius stop rambling and tell me what you want.” 

“Remus and I are sneaking into Hogsmeade now and we can’t find your Invisibility Cloak,” he stated simply. 

James burst into laughter. “Why must you always turn a simple question into a long and rather uninteresting anecdote?”

Sirius grinned and shrugged giddily. “Because I’m Sirius Black and I’m an over-exaggerator.”

“Well admitting it is the first step,” James said with a laugh. 

Sirius rolled his eyes and searched around for something to throw at him with no luck. “That’s great. The Invisibility Cloak?”

James laughed, running his fingers through his messy jet-black hair the way he did whenever he wanted to get someone’s attention as his love-interest across the lake glanced up, not necessarily at him but he wasn't taking any chances. “It should be in my bottom drawer underneath those hideous dress robes my mother insists on me bringing every year.”

Sirius shook his head. “It wasn’t. We looked there. And we looked under your bed where I always throw it and we searched the Marauder shelf where Peter always puts it and we even took the liberty up breaking into that briefcase where all we found was your Playboy stash and those pictures of Lily.”

James glared at him. “What happened to respecting privacy?”

“Marauders don’t know the meaning of privacy.”

“Jerks," James muttered with a sardonic smile.  


“Invisibility Cloak?” Sirius repeated.

James rolled his eyes at Sirius. “You do realize that Remus is the only Marauder who actually places it back in the right spot and if you did the same thing, you might actually be able to find it the next time you’re actually looking for it,” James quickly summed up with a smirk on his face as he crossed his arms humorously.

“Well gee as much fun as it is to be insulted by my best friend, I’m not the one carrying around pictures of a girl that I will never get. So as the Germans say: get over it.”

James gave him a strange look. “Why do the Germans say that?”

“Because they won World War II and felt it necessary that the world should just deal with it!”

James gave Sirius a rather superior look. “The Germans lost World War II, Sirius.”

Sirius shrugged and shook his head as if details didn’t matter. “Okay so _maybe_ I was too busy flirting it up with Denise Jenson to listen in Muggle Studies last week but we’re losing valuable time. Remus and I need to get to Hogsmeade and back so we can both take showers in time for the feast and _you_ , m’friend, are slowing us down.”

James rolled his eyes. “You and Peter used it last night, didn’t you? So why you’re asking me is really beyond me.”

“Peter and I put it exactly where we always put it so you must have moved—oh wait, it’s under Peter’s bed,” Sirius said sheepishly. “Okay well thanks for helping me out and I’ll see you later.”

James put his head in his hand muttering ‘Unbelievable’ under his breath.

Sirius patted James on the back and jumped up ready to sprint across the grounds. He took about three steps and then turned back to look at James. “You want to come with Remus and me? More hands to hold stuff!”

James slightly and hopefully unnoticeably glanced across the lake and then back at Sirius. “Uh…nah, I’m good here.” 

Of course, being James’ best friend since they had met on the Hogwarts Express in their first year, Sirius followed to where James’ eyes were skimming over and sighed. “Of course not. You’d rather stay here until the sun goes down, the stars fill the sky, and dinosaurs roam the earth again if that means staring longingly at Lily Evans from afar,” Sirius explained, crossing his arms in a teasing manor, fluttering his eyelashes teasingly.

James looked up at him curiously. “Dinosaurs, Padfoot?”

Sirius shrugged. “It could happen.”

“It’s about as likely as you and Riley Gilmore marrying and having twenty kids,” James teased.

Sirius gave him a nagging look. “Which is a better chance than you and Lily-bean ever getting together.”

James rolled his eyes and put down the book in his hands. “Shut up and go get snacks and _alcohol_ for tonight.”

“I like how you stress the word alcohol, Prongsie,” Sirius joked. “But unless you somehow get on Lily-bean’s good side by nine o’clock tonight, I’m thinking that by nine-thirty she’ll find out and certainly give you an earful about how we’re corrupting the younger students like she never fails to do at every party we host.”

James couldn’t help but laugh, but Sirius definitely had the description of Lily down. “Just go, Padfoot, and I’ll see you up in the room before the feast.”

Sirius laughed and raced across the grounds. James watched him run directly into Rachael LeBlanc who he stopped to chat (a.k.a. flirt) with for a good minute or so (which got a simple chuckle out of James) before hurrying again out of James’ sight.

The Marauders were a group of four consisting of spontaneous, untamed, rowdy, intelligent, highly uncharacteristic, and very adventurous sixth-year, soon to be seventh-year, Gryffindor boys. Along with that, they were considered the most popular and one of the best-looking group of the school with the help of Sirius and James' ravishing looks. With Sirius Black’s flirtatious charm, James Potter’s prize-winning smile, Remus Lupin’s vibrant personality and Peter Pettigrew’s…uh…Peter Pettigrew’s….okay, well no one was ever sure why Peter was a part of the group; he didn’t exactly bring any hindsight to them. Anyway, with all of that in tow, they practically ruled the school and enjoyed doing so. They created the group back in their first year and made pranking their first mandatory rule. But their second rule was no turning backs on each other—friends forever. For Remus, this wasn’t so easy. He was sure that when his friends found out about his serious lycanthropy condition, they’d immediately kick him out of the group. Well they did the opposite. Instead they did something extremely difficult, but very righteous, and became illegal Animagi just so Remus wouldn’t have to be alone during his transformations. It all just started from there. They were so inseparable it was almost sickening. You never saw one without another and they never wore a frown on their face. They were optimistic about everything in life and because of it, knew all about everyone and everything. You hardly ever saw one of them without a smile on their face. 

James picked up his book again and glanced at the page in front of him; the same page that had been in front of him since he sauntered outside. He had been staring at Lily for an hour before Sirius interrupted and he planned on staring at her until she left her peaceful rock beside the lake.

He glanced up at her once more and saw that she was putting away her book and getting ready to head in. He sighed and gathered his stuff in order to walk ahead of her. He hated this part of the day. 

&&&&&&&&&&

Lily enjoyed sitting on the other side of the lake. It made her different; it made her stand out. Instead of being apart of everyone’s lifestyle, she was making it a point to just be herself. Ever since both her parents had died when she was eight, which she had yet to reveal to anyone, she had always felt the need to be independent; she knew all about living life on her own and being away from people simply made her stronger. Even though she led a difficult life, all her trials and errors just made her truly dedicated and passionate about everything that was close to her, especially her friends. She took the time to stand out because of it all. Instead of being with everyone else, like everyone else, it’s almost as if she was in her own world. But glancing at her watch, she noticed it was time to get back to reality. She promised the girls she would meet them in their room at five to get ready and it was already five after. 

She gathered her favorite book, _Little Women_ , put it safely in her bag, and started to walk across the narrow bridge to join her fellow classmates once again in the real world.

She smiled and waved to the passers-by while walking across the grounds and when she opened the double doors to enter the school, she almost ran straight into Shane Redford, the Head Boy of the school and fellow Gryffindor, and an ex-boyfriend of hers that she still remained friends with.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Lily,” he quickly apologized.

She smiled and shrugged. “No harm done. Maybe if I was a few milliseconds earlier than we’d both be lying on the ground clutching our sides or something but I’m pain-free.”

Shane laughed. “Well then I guess we should thank whatever it was that made you just a few milliseconds later.”

Lily grinned. She had always liked Shane. She could always have a conversation with him without there being any awkward lulls in the conversation and his sense of humor matched hers almost too precisely. “So are you ready to graduate?” she asked, striking up a conversation when she noticed that he too was heading towards the commons room.

Shane frowned. “I’m ready but I’m not sure I’ll be able to handle it.”

“How so?”

“This has been my home for seven years and I’ve loved every minute of it…though I could have done without the grueling final exams,” he snickered. They both laughed and turned the corner. “But everything about this place screams home to me. When I was taking my final rounds last night I couldn’t help but notice everything around me. Of course I had noticed it before—I have been doing rounds for three years now, but this time it was different. Instead of just passing it all by and taking it all in like I normally do, I was focusing on every detail of the school and engraving it in the back of my mind. Like I was ready to actually say good-bye to it all. And then I started thinking back over the years with the many memories I’ve created here and I just started wondering if I could actually go on without Hogwarts in my life anymore.”

Lily grinned and nodded in understanding. “You know, I think in a weird, sort-of other-world way, those are signs pointing you towards your destined future.”

Shane opened his mouth to obviously ask her to continue but quickly realized what she meant. “Yeah…I guess you’re right.”

“And I heard you were uncertain what to write in your graduation speech but I think you just found a wonderful start to it.”

Shane grinned and looked at Lily in amazement. “Merlin, you are going to be an awesome Head Girl, you know that?”

Lily was taken aback. “What? Who said I was Head Girl?”

Shane laughed and gave her a look as they approached the Fat Lady. “Oh please. If you don’t get the position of Head Girl next year, please write to me so I can owl Dumbledore and make sure he hadn’t gone crazy, ‘kay?”

Lily laughed and muttered the password. “Sure thing, Shane.” The Fat Lady portrait opened up and they both entered their commons room.

“You know what? Scratch that. Owl me no matter what. It’ll be nice to hear from a Hogwarts student once I’m working in the real world.”

Lily laughed again and nodded. “Definitely. It will be nice to hear from the real world if I’m stuck working with some half-crazed baboon next year. You got lucky with Melinda this year; she was a great partner.”

Shane nodded. “Yeah. I’ll miss her next year, too.”

“Well, I was supposed to meet my friends fifteen minutes ago and they’re probably all freaking out considering they haven’t even begun to pack for tomorrow so I think they’ll need someone sane to stop them from going completely mad,” Lily explained with a nervous laugh.

Shane chuckled. “Okay. I’ll see you tonight, definitely,” he replied. He paused and then gave her a hug, which Lily was certainly surprised about. “That’s for if I don’t end up saying good-bye today or tomorrow; it may get a little hectic.”

Lily smiled. “Well, thank you. But I’ll hopefully see you later. I wouldn’t want our last good-bye to be whimsical.”

“Me neither.”

They walked their separate ways and Lily couldn’t help but notice just how much she was going to miss Shane as Hogwarts’ Head Boy.

What Lily didn’t notice was the pair of eyes that had been watching them from the moment she and Shane had walked into the commons room. She same pair of eyes that belonged to the guy who had a tug of the heart when James saw them hug, wishing that she was hugging him instead.

James was certain that Lily Evans was the girl for him. She was everything in a girl that he was looking for: gorgeous, intelligent, funny, authoritative, determined, goal-oriented, independent, a born leader, and refused to take no for an answer. Granted she had always looked passed James’ popularity and enjoyed torturing him to no end but that rarely bothered him. Any conversation with her was like a quick trip to heaven to him.  Of course there were times where he wanted to strangle her for her petulant badgering could get on anyone's nerves, but more often than that, it was her beauty that reminded him why he never actually did strangle her.  


She had the most gorgeous green eyes that he had ever seen. They were piercing with a hint of mystery stowed behind them. He found himself staring into them more times than necessary. Her eyes were the secret to her past, present, and future. James thought he had her every emotion down pact because of her eyes. He could sense an occasional feeling of anger or sometimes even melancholy but for the most part they were just filled with a deep longing and emptiness. Like she was hiding a secret. And he wasn’t the only one that noticed that she was trying to hide something. But he was the only one that was determined to figure it out by the end of his Hogwarts career. 

She had the most beautiful curly auburn hair that cascaded freely down her back. The many times he wanted to lift his arm and run his hands through her silky hair. And oh her laugh. Her laugh was contagious. Even a chuckle from her made James begging for more. Her eyes lit up whenever she laughed and it brought a smile to her face. That smile. That was the first thing that drew James to her on the second day of school. She had the most mesmerizing smile. One of those smiles that could probably get anything she wanted. The kind of smile that turned the heads of every guys she passed. Of course, Lily hardly looked their way. She was too busy worrying about the future to even have time for a boyfriend and she made that clear to everyone. 

Lily Evans was just one of those girls. One of those girls that everyone knew and were acquainted with but never really befriended. She was an absolute sweetheart and hardly ever raised her voice to anyone; anyone that is except James.  James was the exception; she often found her fiery red-headed temper getting the better of her when he was around.  But other than wreaking her wrath on James, you rarely saw her temper flying about; she was always very well-kept. She happened to also be one of the nicest people at the school.  She would always stop and take the time to say hi to everyone and ask them how their day was; she was too polite not to. She considered them all of her friends even though they weren’t as close as they could be. But she never minded it. She enjoyed spending her time with schoolwork and the few close friends she had. 

She was a simple girl, not too extravagant but not too boring. She was ordinary I guess you could call it. She wasn’t the adventurous, impulsive type but she didn’t just sit back and let her life pass before her eyes. She wasn’t materialistic and she certainly wasn’t selfish. You’d think that a girl that James Potter wanted to be with had to be a Greek goddess or something, but she was nothing of that sort. Any girl in Hogwarts could easily change their ways and attitudes to be like her. She was nothing special. But that nothing special girl was exactly the girl that James fell for the moment he laid eyes on her and had to do a double-take. To him, everything about her was just right.

But why did James Potter pursue her so much if she was just some mediocre girl that he happened to know very little about? Because again, mediocre was all he needed. She was an angel in his mind and in his dreams and was the bane of his existence. She lifted his spirits every time she walked into a room and brought a smile to his face every time he heard that infamous laugh of hers.

He knew it was time to put their torturous past behind them and start a new life together. Hopefully one that gave James the power to kiss her passionately without her sending him straight to the hospital wing.  


&&&&&&&&&

Lily slowly strolled up the stairs to where the sixth-years Gryffindor dorm room was. Halfway up she could already hear the screams of her fellow dorm-mates and groaned.

“NO! I told you that those robes weren’t mine!” 

“Well Miranda said they weren’t hers, they’re too dirty to be Kay’s, and Lily already packed, so who else could they belong to!?”

Lily cringed and opened the door to her room, expecting some sort of war to erupt in her face; turns out she wasn’t far off. She ducked under the flying clothes over to her bed, placed her bag on the messy floor, tried to talk over the loud yelling that was surrounding her, and finally put her two fingers at the side of her mouth and whistled loudly.

Everyone in the room froze and turned to stare at Lily, who was now sitting on her bed, petting her Siamese cat, Artemis.

“You’re fifteen minutes late,” Mikaela Richards, a.k.a. Kay, said, one of Lily’s dorm-mates and close friends, crossing her arms pessimistically. “If you were here at five like you said you’d be, maybe those two wouldn’t be going at it like two werewolves on a full moon.”

“Hey!” Riley Gilmore, another one of Lily’s dorm-mates and good friends, retaliated.

“We wouldn’t have to keep arguing if Miss Talks-Too-Much would stop thinking those robes belong to me,” a snotty voice belonging to Justine Mille, a dorm-mate that Lily would rather not spend her time with.

“They _are_ yours! I’ve asked everybody else and _you’re_ the last one. By process of elimination-“ Riley started arguing.

“GUYS!” Lily cried, rolling her eyes at the two. “Those very obviously belong to a guy. None of us is that tall.”

They all looked at the robes, saw that Lily was indeed right in saying they were too long, and turned back to her. “Damn, you should have been here twenty ago to settle that,” Riley muttered.

Justine glared at her. “No one gave you permission to talk again.”

“I didn’t realize I _needed_ permission to speak in my own room,” Riley responded, glaring heatedly at her, throwing the rest of her clothes into her trunk in a disorderly function.

“Well who has had a guy in here recently?” Kay asked, ignoring the bickering match between Riley and Justine. “It wasn’t me.”

Lily shook her head even though she was sure none of her dorm-mates would have bothered asking her. She had never brought a guy up to her room.

Justine rolled her eyes. “Not since last month with Harrison,” she bragged.

Riley snorted. “Oh please. You and Harrison did not sleep together so don’t pretend like either one of your robes were shed.”

Justine’s face became bright red and she clenched her fists tightly. “I can’t believe I still have to put up with you for another fucking year.”

“Put up with me?” Riley quickly retaliated. “I’m not the one who has posters of Sirius all around my bed! I swear if I have to look at one more picture of that _asshole_ because of you, I’m kicking you out!”

“GUYS!” Lily cried, frustrated that she always had to mediate with them around. “Will you stop fighting!? Jeez, you will have two months apart from each other so can’t you please just give me the satisfaction of shutting up for tonight!?”

They both rolled their eyes at each other and didn’t bother replying to Lily. 

Justine left her stuff on her bed and walked over to the door mumbling something obscene under her breath. “If Miranda comes back, tell her I’m looking for her.” And with that she walked out of the room.

Riley fell against her bed and said, “Hallelujah! Ding-dong, the wicked bitch is gone.”

Lily and Kay both laughed as Kay went back to packing.

Riley and Lily had met on the Hogwarts Express in their first year and hit it off immediately. Lily remembered praying that Riley and she would be sorted into the same house. They bonded over love for dark chocolate and it was an undeniable start to a long-lasting friendship. They shared the same interest in books and music and they were both addicted to chocolate. They both loved staring at the stars and were both experts on Astronomy. And even though Riley wasn’t a Muggleborn she was half and half so she knew all about the Muggle world. And with her knowledge of the wizardry world, she taught Lily everything she would have to know on the first day of Hogwarts, like all about the professors and which families to stay away from. Her mother was an Auror and most of all, a gossip queen, and therefore knew everything there needed to know about everyone.  


But although they had their similarites, it was their differences that seemed to define them. Lily was fairly short, barely 5' 3", with curly red-auburn hair and bright green eyes while Riley on the other hand was tall and thin, almost 5’9”, with dark brown hair and bright blue eyes. Riley was one of the most, if not the most, beautiful girl of her year, maybe even all of Hogwarts; everyone said so. Attractive, gorgeous, goddess-like: simple understatements. She had such soft features and long, dark brown hair that was tinted with red highlights that stood out perfectly under any light. She was slender, graceful, precocious, unbelievably sexy, and she went out of her way to be unusually boastful. Many guys at Hogwarts vied for her attention, but she wasn’t one to date. Sleep around, sure, but no man was complaining about that. And this wasn’t all to say that Lily was ugly or even average. Lily was certainly beyond average. She had a certain sparkling quality about her and her sweet and innocent personality brought the best out of her. She was beautiful in her own way; the kind of way that could be easily seen on the outside if she didn’t dress in oversized robes and wear her hair pulled back into a bun everyday.

Other than their looks, their personalities clashed as well. First of all, Lily could never understand why Riley and James were practically best friends. Granted, they had been living down the street from each other since they were born and have been watching out for the other ever since, but Lily would still never get it. Also, Lily was definitely categorized as being more quiet and reserved while Riley was wild and adventurous. Riley lived with five brothers so being completely impulsive, and even being a bit of a tomboy, was just how she was brought up.  Lily's background made her more on edge and skeptical. But because of these personality differences, Lily and Riley almost complemented each other too well. Lily calmed Riley down a bit and Riley was able to get Lily to loosen up. By December of their first year, they were inseparable and were both doing things they never thought they would be doing. 

Even on the first night, after being sorted into Gryffindor, they stayed up talking practically all night in their room on Lily’s bed with the curtain closed about everything. Lily knew that as long as she had Riley with her, she could get through anything. They had an incredible bond and in the beginning, they both refused to share that with anyone else. 

By November, things were changing a little. Even though they had only lived with each other for two months, Riley and Lily knew that Justine and Miranda Hobbes were bad news. They had no respect for the others and were completely inconsiderate of other people’s feeling. And because Riley was very opinionated and stood up for what she thought was right, she stuck up for Kay one night when Justine was picking on her and instantly, Kay began part of Lily and Riley’s special bond. And that’s how the Three Musketeers were formed.

Kay was 5’6”, but was indeed more similar to Lily. Her beauty was hidden as well; she rarely bothered to put on make-up and would hardly ever take the time to blow-dry her hair. Her best feature by far was her blonde hair that fell in ringlets down her back. She’s caught the attention of a few guys around school but no one she ever seemed interested in. Especially in the beginning, she was very shy and timid and would hardly say anything to anyone. You rarely ever knew she was in the room. But Kay quickly shed that side of her with Riley around and broke out of her shell. By third year, Kay and Riley were practically overpowering each other when it came to everything, but not in a bad way. They just liked competition and both enjoyed being spontaneous.

Lily, Riley, and Kay certainly had their share of silly catfights, especially over Riley’s favorite subject: GUYS, but nothing could ever tear them apart. They had made a pact in their fifth year that after graduation, they’d remain best friends no matter what and Lily planned on sticking to that, hoping that the others would as well. 

“So Riley, who was the guy?” Kay smirked, after a few seconds of only the sound of packing.

Riley lifted her head and stared at her. “What?”

“Oh please. It wasn’t Justine or me…and I _doubt_ it was Lily,” Kay teased, giving Lily an apologetic look. “And Miranda hasn’t gotten any in a while—ever since you spread that rumor about her and genital herpes in March, so-“

She was interrupted by the hysterical laughter of both Riley and Lily. Miranda had posted entries of Riley’s journal all over the school and to get her back, Riley told all of the guys that Miranda had contracted genital herpes over Christmas break (and of course she stopped writing in her journal as well). Needless to say, guys have not gone near Miranda since then and Riley burned her journal immediately and hasn't written anything since.  


“Anyway, Lily’s definitely right—those robes belong to a guy. And they haven’t been in here for long or else we would have noticed earlier,” Kay continued. “So spill: who was the guy and when did you have him up here where Lily and I didn’t happen to notice?

Riley raised herself off her bed and turned her back to them, returning to her packing, hesitating and looking for the right answer. “Uh…I don’t know. It wasn’t me.”

“Oh really?” Lily questioned, giving Kay a doubtful look. “Then why did it just take you about a minute to answer?”

Riley stopped folding the shirt in her hands and stared at the wall in front of her. She knew she was stuck and they had caught her in the act of lying. “Okay, okay. Fine, but don’t judge, okay?”

Lily and Kay exchanged approving looks and nodded. “Okay,” Lily agreed.

“Uh…well, it’s like this: those robes belong to…uh…Zach.”

“What!?” Kay replied.

“No way!” Lily said in absolute shock. “You guys broke up in December because he slept with some other girl! It took you like a month to get over him. Please don’t tell me you’re getting back together with him—he _won’t_ change.”

“You said you wouldn’t judge,” Riley pointed out, turning around to face their shocked and angered faces. She bit her lip like she always did when she was nervous and sighed. “And of course we’re not getting back together--we were hardly together to begin with; we were only in it for the sex for God's sake. We just…well, let’s just call it a making up session—one last really good night together. We were just talking and one thing led to another and it…it kinda…well, it just happened. But you guys don’t have to worry; it was just a one-time thing.”

Kay sighed and threw her the robes that were now sitting on the messy floor. “We’re just looking out for you.”

Riley smiled at them. “I know. And I appreciate it. But I plan on never really speaking in whole sentences to him again. He's graduating anyway so it's not such a big deal."  


“Good,” Lily agreed. “Well, I’m going to take a shower. Once you two finish packing and get ready for tonight, let’s go-“

“It won’t take us forever to get ready,” Kay interrupted. “It’s just the end of the year feast. We’re just wearing school robes. Nothing too fancy.”

Lily laughed and rolled her eyes as she changed out of her clothes into a towel in the corner of her room. “Yeah but we all know the Marauders are throwing a party tonight and you two will be going all out underneath your school robes.”

Riley pointed to a jean skirt and halter-top on her pillow. “I’ve already picked out what I’m going to wear.”

Lily turned to Kay. “See?”

Kay laughed. “Point taken.”

“And just for you two, I have decided to throw all morals out the window tonight and just have a good time,” Lily added.

“YES!” Riley whooped, high-fiving Kay enthusiastically. “Maybe we’ll even get her to dance with a few boys who have been eyeing her up!”

Lily glared at her. “Don’t push it; no one in Gryffindor is worth it.”

“Okay, compromise: Just drink some Fire Whiskey.”

“No alcohol is touching my lips.”

“A little make-out session on the dance floor?”

“No.”

“Skinny-dipping in the lake?”

“No!”

“Seven minutes in heaven in the broom closet?”

“No.”

“Strip poker!?”

“Oh yeah, because I’m not willing to make out with any boys or go skinny-dipping in the lake, but _sure_ , I’ll go on display naked for all the boys to see,” Lily said sarcastically as she stared at her friends incredulously.

Riley turned to Kay, plunging on to her bed giddily. “See? I told you we’d break her eventually.” 

They both laughed and turned back to their somewhat humored friend.

Lily threw her clothes in her dirty laundry bag and gave them both amused looks. “Guys, when I said I’d have a good time, I simply meant I’d enjoy the music, I wouldn’t completely bitch out anyone tonight, and I’d go to bed later than one o’clock.”

“Well, step down Prince William; we have a new rebel in the house!” Kay announced, going into a giggling fit along with Riley.

“I’m going to force down a few drinks on you tonight if it’s the last thing I do,” Riley teased, throwing a pillow off her bed in Lily’s direction.

Lily ducked and watched as it sailed toward the window and bounced on to her bed. “If you attempt to make me force down a few drinks then yeah, it _will_ be the last thing you do.”

“Oh come on, Lily! It’s like a rule of life!”

“Oh really?” Lily snickered.

“Yeah! Make friends, get boyfriend, dump him and get new boyfriend, go to a good school, GET DRUNK, have sex, get a job, mate for life, retire, and die! It says so right there in the rules of life!”

“I think those are just the rules of Riley Gilmore,” Lily replied sarcastically, smacking Riley with her pillow.

“And am I _not_ your life?” Riley recapped overdramtically, trying to escape from Lily’s pillow war.

“Not right now,” Lily laughed. “And I think you got your rules a bit mixed up because the last time I checked you had sex before you ever got a boyfriend,” Lily snickered, rolling her eyes and moving back to attempting to pack.

“HEY!” Riley protested, throwing another pillow at her.

Lily laughed and threw a pillow but with her usual lack of aim, hit Kay square in the face, which led to a full-blown pillow war.

After they were all done laughing and messing around, they all plopped on to their own beds in exhaustion.

“I think I’m going to reiterate a very good point of Justine: I don’t know how I’m going to put up with you two for another whole year,” Lily teased, standing up after a few seconds of silence to catch her breath

Kay and Riley exchanged all-knowing glances and ran towards Lily to bombard her with a group hug, pushing her over on to her bed. “Three Musketeers for life,” Riley chuckled.

“Or until I kill one of you,” Lily snickered.

“Yeah well you might be going through with that after you see what we picked out for you to wear tonight,” Riley grinned, quickly getting away from Lily’s grasp before she could strangle her.

“We picked out?” Kay questioned. “Hm, I remember you picking out an outfit and me saying that Lily may have you beheaded for it so I’m not sure where that ‘we’ came in.”

“Okay, so I picked it out but you can’t let down all those guys you will be stripping for at the poker game now can you?” Riley smirked, enjoying the frustrated look on Lily’s face as she slowly headed Riley’s way with an evil glint in her eyes.

“Well it seems to be that it won’t matter what you wear if you’re playing strip poker just as long as you shaved you-know-where,” Kay said with a very entertained smile on her face as she leaned against the bathroom doorframe for the killing match that was about to go down in her dorm.

Lily gave her a look. “Oh yeah, because I’m the type of girl who takes out time in the bathroom to shave my privates.”

Riley shrugged. “It’s _always_ the quiet girls.”

Lily threw another pillow her way. “It’s not always the quiet girls! It’s the slutty girls who go around this school promoting sex in their skimpy mini-skirts and tube tops!”

“Why do you look at _me_ when you say that?” Riley snickered.

“Wonder why,” Kay laughed. “C’mon, Lily, you have to be willing to try new things!”

Lily glanced at her curiously, tidying up her bed after the pillow fight. “Was that directed at me for the purpose of strip poker or shaving?”

“Both!” Kay and Riley both answered in unison, bursting into hysterical giggles.

“And the purpose that you shouldn’t fight the outfit Riley chose for you tonight,” Kay teased.

Lily took time to glare at Kay before glancing at the outfit at the foot of her bed that Riley was pointing at. Her mouth dropped and she turned to give Riley her infamous have-you-gone-insane look. “No way am I wearing that! That dress won’t cover my ass, and my boobs will be popping out of it!”

“Yes, I checked those things off my mental list while picking an outfit for you too.”

“You’re dead Riley Vienna Gilmore,” Lily snarled, chasing her around the room until Riley oh-so-smartly ran out of the room and down into the commons room.

Lily smirked. “Like I don’t know where she lives.”

Kay laughed as Lily sauntered into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. 

&&&&&&&&&&&

Twenty minutes to seven, Lily and Riley were in the commons room waiting for Kay so they could walk down to the Great Hall together for the feast. They were both sitting on the couch closest to the boys’ dormitory talking over the years.

“I don’t know. Third year was my weird year. The workload was unbearable, we were in the middle of our prime Hogwarts years, no one seemed to notice us, Hogsmeade just seemed too good to be true, I still thought boys had cooties, and life seemed to be getting more difficult,” Riley was explaining to Lily. 

Lily laughed as she blew against her just-painted fingernails. “You did _not_ think boys still had cooties! You were caught kissing Fabian Prewett in the Quidditch locker room that March.”

Riley was about to protest but thinking back on it, she laughed. “Oh right. Then maybe it was second year that was my weird year.” She paused and shrugged. “Then again, we didn’t even get to go to Hogsmeade that year.”

Lily rolled her eyes. “Because _that’s_ what we were most worried about then.”

Riley shrugged. “It _was_! That’s where the best dates happen Lily. God, you really have to focus.”

Lily laughed. “I thought you said boys had cooties that year.”

“Man, you’re thinking way too much into this.”

Lily laughed again, and rolled her eyes jestingly at her best friend. “Well, I think this year was by far my best.”

Riley rolled her eyes and closed the book that was in her hands. “You say that at the end of every year.”

“And you say _that_ at the end of every year!” Lily argued. “And besides, this time I really mean it.”

“And you say _that_ every year,” Riley snickered, ducking from the flying pillow headed her way that Lily grabbed off the couch.

Lily laughed, stifling a yawn. “Well you have to admit turning seventeen is a huge plus,” Lily said slowly and thoughtfully. “I mean, c’mon, we’re legal in the wizardry world now.”

Riley grinned. “Oh, don’t worry. I plan on taking that out on my brothers every chance I can. Caleb, Rafe, and Lance certainly did when they turned seventeen.”

Lily rolled her eyes. “Well have fun with that but when I hear about you being blown up by one of them because one of your pranks backfired, don’t think I’m planning on waiting to break in a new best friend.”

Riley threw back the pillow in which Lily was too slow in ducking and got smacked in the face with it. But before Lily could retaliate, loud voices were being echoed from the midst of the boys’ dormitory stairs.

Sirius and Remus soon emerged, both looking overanxious for the feast. “Hey Lily. Hey Riley,” Remus greeted.

Sirius grinned at the sight of Riley and Lily and took the liberty of jumping over the back of the couch and sitting right in the middle of them. “Hello, ladies.” 

Riley rolled her eyes and pushed Sirius’ legs off of her. “Don’t you have some other girls to torture?”

“Eh, I’ve had my fun with them. Now it’s just one-on-one personal time with my two favorite Gryffindor ladies…oh, I guess that would make it one-on-two.”

Remus and Lily snickered at the really bad joke.

“And soon it will be _zero_ -on-two once I throw you out your bedroom window,” Riley replied with a haughty smirk on her face.

“Now, now, is that any way to respect the man you will one day be marrying, babes?”

Riley shuddered. “Oh please don’t make me hurl. That’s what eating too much dessert at the end-of-the-year feast is for.”

“Well why don’t you start thinking of _me_ as dessert, sweetheart?”

Riley’s immediate reflex was to gag. She stood up from the couch and glared at Remus. “Haven’t you learned to tame him by now?”

Remus laughed and shook his already long and shaggy, and yet still gorgeous and blonde hair out of his face. “We try but he learned how to break free of his cage.”

“Hey!” Sirius defended. “You’re supposed to be on my side!”

“Aww…did he make the wittle baby cwy?” Riley snickered, rolling her eyes. 

“Why don’t you just stop hiding the fact that you’re one-hundred percent infatuated with me and stop resisting my charm, babe?” Sirius purred with a very seductive look on his face. “You know nothing’s sexier than a man on the prowl…”

Riley glared at him. “Then it’s a good thing I don’t see a man around here,” she smirked. She turned back to Lily. “I’m going to go see if Kay’s ready yet, Lily. Please get rid of him by the time I get back.”

Lily laughed and gave Sirius an apologetic look, nodding at Riley. “I’ll do my best but apparently he’s on the prowl and I’m afraid to mess with a guy like that.”

“ _Please_ don’t tempt him,” Riley muttered as she walked away from them and back up to her room.

Lily, Kay, Remus, James, and Peter never knew why Sirius and Riley started hating each other. They were perfectly content with each other up until January of the previous year. Suddenly, everything out of each other’s mouths was some sort of wise-crack and no one could get it out of them. One month they were laughing with each other, the next they were planning each other’s death and not one of their friends could figure it out. 

“You know, besides the Slytherins, she’s the one girl who I can’t seem to crack,” Sirius stated matter-of-factly. “I’m beginning to think she doesn’t appreciate me.”

Remus and Lily burst into laughter, as Remus took a seat where Riley was previously sitting. “You’re _just_ realizing this?” Lily snickered.

Sirius made a face. “So are you excited for the party tonight, Lily-bean?” Sirius asked with a goofy smile on his face.

Lily gave him a doubtful look. “You’re talking to the only prefect who is willing to stand up to you and Potter, Sirius, when it comes to excessive noise and illegal beverages.”

Sirius laughed. “Good point. But you should take it on yourself tonight to let loose and live a little. Get a little drunk here, make out with a few boys there—I will be the cute one in the blue shirt if you need help with that—and maybe even pass out on the couch down here. I think it could do you some good.”

Lily snorted. “Oh yeah, you’re exactly right. I think just for tonight I may turn into those half-crazed, clueless bimbos who have lost all brain cells and drink some cocktails, swoon over superficial guys just because I can, and maybe I’ll even dance on a few tables,” she replied sarcastically, giving him her infamous you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me look. “But don’t you worry because I will be keeping my eye on _you_ the whole night, Sirius.” 

“Right on! Just come find me when you want to have a little fun,” Sirius kidded, lifting his feet and draping them over Lily’s lap. “And I will certainly be looking for the redhead on all of the tables.” 

Remus rolled his eyes. “I guess then I will just have to be the mature prefect for tonight then.”

Both Sirius and Lily laughed, turning towards Remus with humored looks on their faces. “Merlin, you guys are too much for me. I think I gotta stop hanging around you guys.”

“Damnit, my sexiness is always driving away the ladies,” Sirius mumbled.

“Yeah that and the fact you’re a self-centered, seductive womanizer just up for one-night stands, often forgetting that even clueless sluts have feelings, too,” Lily pointed out.

Sirius shrugged. “Okay, that too.” 

It was at that moment that James walked down the stairs, where a pang of jealousy rode through him as he saw his two best friends getting buddy-buddy with the girl he wanted to be buddy-buddy with. “Hey, guys,” he greeted. He then turned to Lily and smiled. “Evans.”

Lily just gave him an awkward smile. She never did particularly get along with James and even though since the beginning of the year, his ego had deflated a bit and he had learned not to be so arrogant, she never was sure what his intentions with anyone were. He had stopped harassing her so she really couldn’t ask for anything more.  She was tired of losing her temper to him and finally just chose to avoid him.  


“Well, I’m going to go check on Riley and Kay,” Lily said, mostly just as an excuse to get away, pushing Sirius’ legs off of her (“Oof! Hey, that was getting rather comfortable!”). “I’ll see you guys at the feast and at the party tonight though.”

“Bye, see you tonight,” Remus said.

“Sure thing, Lily-bean,” Sirius grinned. “And remember, I’ll be watching tabletops tonight.” He winked at her and watched her walk off. 

“What’s up, Jamesie?” Remus asked. “How was the shower with all the cold water because Padfoot here doesn’t know how to limit his showers to less than twenty minutes?”

James shrugged. “Like any other shower I guess.”

“Ahh, so daydreaming about Lily I suppose?” Sirius snickered.

“Well I certainly wasn’t the one hanging my feet on her,” James muttered, giving Sirius an envious look.

Sirius cringed. “Oh yeah. Sorry about that.”

James shrugged again, leaning on the armrest beside Remus. “It’s not my fault she likes you better than me.”

Remus snorted. “Considering you were the one who poured chocolate sauce down her back in first year and not Sirius, I think it could be your fault.”

James glared at him.

“Right, not helping,” Remus muttered. “So why don’t you just ask her out?” he dared to ask, shielding himself from what he thought might be James slapping him.

James laughed at the idea. “I have. Do you not remember all October and November?”

“No I mean like _really_ ask her out. Just be yourself! Don’t act all charming and suave in front of her and then a day later torture Snape so she can realize how heartless you can be,” Remus pointed out cautiously.

“Well _you’ve_ met Snivellus. Anyone would want to torture him,” Sirius snickered, earning a glare from Remus.

“Well I know that but don’t do it in front of Lily like you always seem to manage,” Remus explained. “Like she said a few months ago, start deflating your ego a bit more, and maybe she’ll realize you’re just not that flirty, overbearing guy who’s just asking her out for the chase.”

“First of all, I have deflated my ego and everyone has said so! I’m much better off now than I was at this point last year,” James pointed out, with a hint of anger obviously frustrated over the idea of talking about him and Lily. He had realized that it was pointless to even try befriending her; she would hardly go for that. “And second of all, why do you want me to change anyway?”

“I’m not saying I want you to change,” Remus clarified. “I’m saying that if you really want to be with Lily, then _she’d_ want you to change.”

James shrugged and rolled his eyes. “Well I hardly think she’s changed her mind since the last time I asked her out. And a guy can only be rejected so many times before realizing he needs to move on.”

“Except you _haven’t_ moved on,” Sirius pointed out. He turned around and propped his elbows on the back of the couch. “I think you should go for it. You’ve obviously changed a lot since November and maybe she noticed as well.”

James was going to shoot down that idea but he couldn’t help but wonder if she had noticed. Maybe if he asked her out, she’d say yes this time…then again, she could just reject him for the millionth time.

“Oh, she’s noticed. Everyone’s noticed,” Remus butted in.  "But be careful around her, James.  She's a tricky one to understand."  


"You don't think I know that," James snapped irritably.  "I _have_ been trying to udnerstand her since day one."

"It doesn't help that she's a woman," Sirius snickered.  "Women are impossible to comprehend." 

"So true," Remus agreed.

James couldn't help but nod in total agreement. 

  
“C’mon, let’s go set up our last prank for tomorrow morning,” Sirius said, hopping off the couch. “That’ll get your mind off her.”

Don’t be so sure, James thought to himself as he followed his friends out of the commons room, a slight glance back at the hope that Lily might be walking down the stairs at that point. 

But no such luck.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&

**A/N:** Well that's chapter 1...there's a lot more coming, I promise! I'm just giving you a feel of the characters. Hope you like it so far...even though it's only 1 chapter, haha. **  
**


	2. Of Tight Dresses, Bathrooms, & Balconies

**A/N:** I'm back (rather quickly) because I've decided I like the second chapter much better than I like the first--you get to know the characters more in depth. 

 

**Tears on the Balcony**

By ByeByeBirdie

Chapter 2: Of Tight Dresses, Bathrooms, and Balconies

&&&&&&&&&&&&

Gryffindor did win the House Cup along with the Quidditch Cup which just led Sirius to throw an even bigger party.

And of course Riley was complaining that they weren't down there yet. “Come on, you guys! The party’s going to start without us,” she whined, lying on her bed, randomly flipping through some old fashion magazine that she was obviously not really reading.

Kay stuck her head out of the bathroom. “Riley, when was the last time a party started without you?”

Riley paused. “Good point.”

“There is no way I am leaving this dorm looking like _this_!” Lily complained.

Riley rolled her eyes, threw the magazine into the pile of her other junk and walked into the bathroom where a stubborn Lily stood with Kay trying to fix her hair right next to her.

“Are you kidding, Lily!” Riley squealed. “You look hott.”

Lily glared at her. “I’m a prefect. I’m supposed to look normal.”

Kay snorted. “Tell that to Rachael LeBlanc. She just came by asking for some mousse with what appeared to be a dress but was for sure two sizes too small.”

Riley grinned. “So think of it this way: at least your dress fits!”

“If this dress fit, I would be covered up!” Lily cried in a shrill voice.

“That dress fits exactly like it’s supposed to,” Riley pointed out. 

“But I’m not a prostitute on some street corner!” Lily whined.

Riley paused. “Well if you’d like, that could be arranged. I know some people," she teased.  


Lily attempted to leap up to clobber Riley, but Kay pushed her shoulders down. “Will you stop moving? Do you want your hair to look like a mess?”

“It doesn’t matter what my hair looks like because I’m _not_ going down there,” Lily protested, crossing her arms stubbornly.

Riley rolled her eyes. “I’m going to go see what James is up to. Try to talk some sense into her, Kay.”

Kay laughed. “Like that’s going to happen.”

“Tell Potter I hate him for throwing a party and forcing you two to make me dress like this!!” Lily cried after her as she walked out of the bathroom.

“How about I just tell him you say hi?” Riley snickered.

Lily threw a hairbrush out of the bathroom, completely missing Riley, causing them all to laugh.

“I’m still trying to think of a logical explanation to how you’re actually friends with that bozo,” Lily murmured, wincing from pain as Kay pulled on her hair tighter.

Riley shrugged. “I was barely a month old when our mothers put us in the same playgroup. How was I supposed to know that in eleven years my best friend would meet him and hate him?”

Lily glared at her. “You make it sound like he introduced himself and we just happened to hit it off wrong. There _is_ more to it!”

Kay groaned. “Oh God! Not the chocolate sauce story! _Pleeeeeease_ not the chocolate sauce story!”

Riley laughed and let Lily continue swatting at Kay.

“And just for that, Kay, you will have to sit through it again,” Lily said with a very haughty grin on her face. “Well I’m sitting in my compartment, alone and _content_ being alone when that bastard walks in and introduces himself, of course acting all suave and _very_ pathetic…..”

Riley laughed at the strained look on Kay’s face and walked out of the room as Lily went on to explain how James attempted to show Lily how to transform a bottle of shampoo into a bottle of chocolate sauce and it all went wrong.

Downstairs in the commons room, most of the younger students stood obviously waiting for the Marauders to liven things up and Riley couldn’t help but roll her eyes at how naïve they all seemed to be.

She ignored the stares from the younger goody-two-shoes wondering why she was going up the guys’ dormitory stairs and walked up to the sixth floor, knocking on their door. Of course, she didn’t even bother to wait for a reply as she opened the door and was met with James and Remus pounding on the bathroom door and Peter lying on his bed bored staring up ath the ceiling, in such a manner that she was only moments earlier.

“Hey guys,” she snickered. “Black lock himself in the bathroom again, making sure every hair on his head is in the right place?”

James and Remus groaned. “Yeah,” Remus grumbled. He pounded on the door again. “SIRIUS! GET OUT HERE THIS MINUTE! THERE ARE OTHER PEOPLE WHO NEED TO USE THE BATHROOM!”

But of course nothing happened.

“Maybe he jumped out the window,” Riley suggested hopefully. “Or maybe he suffocated from too much mousse. Or slipped in the shower!”

“Or _maybe_ he’s just _trying to piss the rest of us off!_ ” James shouted into the door. “OPEN UP, SIRIUS!!!”

Riley rolled her eyes when, again, nothing happened. “Here, let me try.”

“We’ve tried everything. Good luck with him,” James complained, moving away from the door so Riley could attempt to get him out of there.

“You just have to know how to handle him,” Riley grinned mischievously. She cleared her throat, and in a rather high-pitched squeaky voice said, “Sirius? It’s Rachael. I was hoping you could accompany me down-“

The door swung open with Sirius and his pouty-sexy lips, his eyes half-closed at an attempt to be seductive as he leaned against the doorframe. He opened his eyes and all of his attempts to be sexy disappeared as a frown replaced his usual charming smile. “You conniving, manipulative whore.”

Riley rolled her eyes and turned back to James and Remus who were staring at her in awe. “Bathroom’s free,” she grinned.

Remus made a run for it, pushing Sirius out of the way as James stood fixated on the spot, staring in awe at Riley. “We…we’ve tried everything and you come in and on your first attempt you get him out of there,” he said in shock. He grabbed Riley tightly, not letting her go. “That’s it. You are _never_ leaving.”

“Not if I have something to say about it,” Sirius argued, glancing over at her with an expression of contempt.

Riley rolled her eyes and pushed James off of her. “Not like I would want to stay in a room that is even within a hundred miles from you, but if I did I wouldn’t listen to what you had to say anyway.”

“Funny, because the last time I checked, your room isn’t a hundred miles away from ours.”

Riley crossed her arms and glared at him. “Don’t you have some girl to snog?”

“Don’t you have some boy’s life to make miserable?”

“Nah. I only enjoy tormenting you,” she said with a mischievous grin.

Sirius rolled his eyes. “I think you’ve got the roles reversed because I do believe I torment you a shitload more than you attempt to torment me. Now if you don’t mind, I’ve got a party to get ready for. And seeing as I doubt I’ll be getting the bathroom again anytime soon, I’ve got some beverages to go get.” And with one last piercing glare towards Riley, he stormed out.

“Ahh, finally peace and quiet,” she mumbled, diving on to James’ bed in an outstretched position and glancing around the room. “Uh…you guys do realize that we’re leaving tomorrow right?”

James shrugged and lay down beside her, waiting for Remus to get out of the bathroom. “Yeah…and?”

Riley snorted and pointed to the room. “Your room is a pigsty. It’s pretty much how I always pictured the inside of my head to look like.”

James and Peter snorted. “Funny but Sirius says the same thing,” Peter commented, causing Riley to roll her eyes.

“No, this room would be completely empty if it were the inside of that moron’s head,” she mumbled. “Weren’t you guys planning on, oh I don’t know, _packing_ anytime soon?”

James and Peter exchanged looks and burst into laughter. “Course not,” James explained. “That’s what the hour before the Hogwarts Express leaves is for.”

Riley stared at him. “You cram in your packing time?”

James shrugged. “Of course. What, did you expect the Marauders to _actually_ do something ahead of time?”

The bathroom door opened and Remus walked out, immediately answering, “To be fair, Riley, every year I always bring up the idea of packing the night before.”

“Yeah and every year I point out that you’re crazy,” James laughed. 

Remus shrugged. “And every year I point out that with Sirius around, you might want to rethink that last statement.”

“And every year Sirius throws a book at your head,” Peter added, causing them all to laugh.

“And every year, this doesn’t get old?” Riley pointed out. 

Remus, James, and Peter exchanged looks. “Nahhh,” they all said in unison.

"We thrive on tradition," James grinned. 

Riley laughed. “I should have figured,” she explained. “I mean you guys _are_ easily amused.”

“Hey!” James argued.

Riley gave him a look.

“Yeah, okay we are.”

“Okay, so here’s a question for you,” James offered, getting off the bed and walking towards the bathroom. “With an outfit like that, who exactly are you trying to impress?”

Riley threw James' pillow towards the bathroom in hopes that it would hit him, but naturally her being a girl and throwing like one, it landed a few feet before the intended mark. “I’m trying to impress _you_ , dahling,” she joked in a fake sophisticated manner. “I’m _always_ trying to impress you.”

James snorted and stuck his head out of the bathroom. “On Tuesday, you barged in here wearing flannel boxers, an over-sized T-shirt with the phrase ‘Always open for business,’ and an arrow pointing down—I remember because Sirius commented on it—and your hair thrown up into one of those messy buns complaining that you had a zit the size of a melon on your nose.”

Riley paused. “And that didn’t impress you?” 

They all laughed. “No, not particularly,” he laughed. “So who’s the lucky guy?”

“I’m not trying to impress anyone……however, if a few boys happen to look my way and I end up taking one back to my room with me, so be it,” she said with a teasing grin.

They all stared at her. “I don’t get how you and Sirius don’t get along. It’s like you’re the same person,” Remus commented. 

Riley glared at him. “I resent that!”

Remus rolled his eyes. “I figured you might.”

Riley sat up and crossed her arms, glaring at Remus. “You know, I didn’t come over here to be criticized. I came over here to relax and hang out!”

James gave her a look. “No, you came over here to get away from whatever Lily and Kay were doing to bother you.”

Riley opened her mouth to protest but closed it, with a sigh. “I’ve got to find friends who don’t know me inside and out.” 

“How about Sirius?” Remus snickered.

“How about blow me?”

Remus thought about it. “Hm…well alright but it might ruin our friendship," he said, out-of-place rom his usual respectable character.  


Riley laughed, surprised at his response. “And with one Marauder already on my hit-list we wouldn’t want another, now would we?”

Remus rolled his eyes and threw a pillow at her.

“HEY!” Riley called as she fell backwards. She threw it back at him, who laughed.

Riley grinned and ducked at the next pillow flying her way which ended up in a full-out pillow war between the two with Peter sitting off to the side, watching in uncertainty, and causing James to crawl back into the bathroom not willing to get involved.

“JAMES!” Riley whined. “Come out here and help me.”

Remus snorted and smushed her in between two pillows. “Why would he help _you_?? I live with the guy! He’s _my_ best friend.”

“And I’ve known him since he was in diapers. I think I win,” Riley teased, being pushed on to James’ bed by another round of Remus’ pillow fighting. 

Remus paused, causing Riley to snatch the pillows out of Remus’ hand. “Hm…do you have any pictures of him in those diapers for blackmail in the future years?”

“THESE WALLS ARE PAPER THIN YOU KNOW!” James cried out from the bathroom.

“James, will you hurry up before I become involved in their little pillow party?” Peter complained, climbing off his bed and walking around Remus and Riley to pound on the bathroom door.

“Oooh, not a bad idea,” Remus teased, throwing a pillow in Peter’s direction who ducked in time.

James eventually opened the door, having a pillow thrown at him immediately by Riley. James stumbled backwards, completely thrown off-guard and glared at her when he got his balance back. “Oh you are _so_ dead.” 

And with that he ran towards Riley full-blast and completely plowed into her, pushing her on to his bed with him holding her down and tickling her excessively.

“ARGH!!! I hate that I’m ticklish!!” she cried through her laughter fits.

James grinned. “I _love_ that you’re ticklish.”

“And I love how we should be downstairs partying,” Peter added, shaking his head at the two.

“And getting drunk,” Riley added, after she was able to push James off of her.

James made a face. “Ugh, you’re like my little sister. You’re not allowed to get drunk.”

Riley grinned. “Y'know, I get promiscuous when I’m drunk.”

James paused. “I change my mind.”

They all laughed and followed James out of the room downstairs to where the party was finally getting started.

&&&&&&&&&&&&

At around midnight, about two hours after the party had actually started, after Sirius had danced with almost every girl in the room, James was still prone on staring at Lily for the whole night in her absolutely drop-dead gorgeous outfit, and almost everyone in the room had at least two alcoholic beverages in their system, the Marauders found themselves backed into a corner just surveying the room.

“I have a question for you guys,” Sirius said to his three friends.

“Oh god, here it comes,” James muttered.

“What?” Sirius asked innocently.

“The last time you had a question for us it was, ‘When cheese gets its picture taken, what does it say?’” James said, giving him a look.

“Yeah, and I never got an answer for that,” Sirius replied, crossing his arms crossly.

Remus, James, and Peter exchanged looks. “I-I’m not even going to bother,” Remus muttered, taking a sip of whatever spiked drink he had in his hand.

“So what’s the question?” Peter dared to ask. 

“If you take an Oriental person and spin her around several times, does she become disoriented??” Sirius questioned, nodding in the direction of Keiko Mei in the corner.

They all stared blankly at him before Remus finally said, “Why do we still hang out with you?”

Sirius grinned. “Because if you didn’t, these parties just wouldn’t be as awesome as they are.”

“True, but our room wouldn’t always be locked due to your sexual relationships, we wouldn’t have to worry about explaining the obvious to you, and the day wouldn’t be filled with your absolute pointless questions.”

Sirius thought about it. “Okay, yes, but then there wouldn’t be a Padfoot.”

“Exactly,” all three of them said in unison.

Sirius scowled. “Are you guys saying having no Padfoot is a good thing??" Sirius said shockingly. 

The other three boys exchanged glances and simultaneously said, "Yes." 

Sirius gaped at them. “If there was no Padfoot, then you guys would-“

“Celebrate,” James interrupted.

“Throw a party,” Peter added.

“Scream for joy,” Remus finished.

James, Remus, and Peter all laughed as Sirius scowled at them. “I was going to say with no Padfoot, you would have to rely on yourselves for these parties and getting around the castle and God knows you three can’t do anything without me.”

“I have the Invisibility Cloak,” James pointed out.

“And I was the one who stumbled across the secret passage to get into Hogsmeade,” Remus explained.

“Yeah and I was the one who accidentally tripped over my shoelaces and ran into the portrait of the fruit bowl, causing me to accidentally brush up against the pear earning us the ability to get into the kitchens,” Peter clarified.

“And I was the one who suggested we become Animagi,” James continued.

“And I am the werewolf who led to that suggestion,” Remus added.

“And I was the one who snuck into the Potion’s backroom in order to get everything we needed,” Peter finished.

Sirius hesitated. “Wow, I really didn’t do anything.”

“And _finally_ he gets it!” James cried out.

“So pretty much if there was no me, nothing would have changed,” Sirius realized. “Wow…I’m unimportant.”

“But if there was no you, where would all the girls turn to?” James snorted.

Sirius grinned. “I knew I had a purpose here at Hogwarts.”

They all laughed, surveying the room at all of the happy students glad to be done with exams and schoolwork.

“Dare I say it, but this has got to be one of our best parties yet,” Sirius said grinning, gulping down the rest of his spiked punch, probably his tenth drink that night.

James nodded in agreement. “A great way to end the year.” 

Sirius took a seat on the steps up to dorm and looked up at James. “I’m still curious as to why Lily hasn’t bitched us out for the alcohol and the loud, and in her mind obnoxious, noise.”

“If you think that’s strange, I saw her take a sip of the punch earlier!” Remus exclaimed in awe.

“And have you seen what she’s wearing? I’ll deny I ever said this, but that girl cleans up quick,” Sirius admitted, staring Lily up and down in the black cocktail dress that indeed Riley forced her to wear, practically pushing her down the stars with it on. “She looks hott. I never knew she had it in her.”

Remus glanced at James who was being extremely quiet that night. “What’s up, James? You’re being suspiciously silent as we talk about your love interest.”

James gave him an annoyed look and turned back to staring at everyone in the room, specifically the happy couples, something which he knew he’d never get to be with Lily but always prayed about, and simply muttered, “Why talk about it when you guys already think you know how I feel?”

“We don’t _think_ we know; we _do_ know,” Sirius quickly corrected. “You’re so infatuated with her I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve already wrote up wedding invitations.”

James rolled his eyes. “Not quite.”

“Well you’re harboring pictures of her in that briefcase of yours so you’re obviously more than just curiously interested in her,” Sirius snickered, enjoying the harassment of James.

James glared at him, trying hard not to let this get to him. “What happened to respecting my privacy?”

“We’ve gone through this. When it comes to crushes on girls, we Marauders don’t respect privacy. Nope, I need to know everything about you and Lily and I need details.”

James clenched his fists tightly. “Leave it alone, Padfoot,” he said firmly.

Remus glanced regretfully at James knowing that Sirius was probably getting on his last nerve but he couldn’t help but be a little curious as well. James had always been vague when it came to Lily but he obviously felt something a little stronger than just a tiny crush or else he’d be willing to tell them more. “Prongs, it’s been about seven months since you’ve been with a girl. We know something is up so don’t bother hiding it.”

James slammed his drink down on the table and stalked off without even bothering to respond to that. 

“I hate when he shuts us out like this!” Sirius complained.

Remus sighed. “He obviously really likes Lily if he’s not willing to share the details with us.”

Sirius gave him a look. “How do you figure that?”

Remus snorted. “Because he knows you. He says one thing about her and you’ll go spreading rumors about them around this school.”

“What!? I wouldn’t do-“

“Sirius,” Remus warned.

“Yeah okay, I would.” 

Remus watched James sneak outside to the balcony attached to the Gryffindor commons room where Remus was almost certain he saw a redhead heading towards just a few minutes earlier.

James silently closed the door behind him and smiled at the sight of Lily’s gorgeous red hair blowing with the warm Spring breeze. She looked so peaceful simply leaning on the balcony railing that James almost didn’t want to interrupt. But he knew he’d regret it if he didn’t at least try to say something to her.

He walked up behind her and found the courage to say, “Hey.”

Lily gasped and quickly whirled around, obviously on edge. She exhaled in a thankful manner. “Hey, Potter.”

James cringed. Every time she uttered his last name it just reminded him about how far he still needed to go to win her over if he ever was going to get her attention. “What are you doing out here when the party’s in there?” he asked pointing towards the inside.

Lily gave James a look and went back to leaning atop the railing. “You of all people should know I’m not exactly one to party,” she said rather harshly.

Ouch. But James simply nodded trying not to let her words get to him. “Yeah well that dress states otherwise,” he said, realizing too late just how cocky that sounded.

“Ex- _cuse_ me?” Lily said indignantly giving him a potentially disgusted look.

“I just meant that…well, you look absolutely gorgeous in that dress,” James said, hoping that that line had saved him.

Lily was certainly taken aback by it. “Oh…well…thanks,” she said uncomfortably. “Riley chose it obviously.”

James snickered. “Yeah, I figured.”

“I never would want to wear something like this,” Lily clarified. “But she wouldn’t let me come if I didn’t wear this and God knows you Marauders needed a prefect to keep things in line.”

“We have Remus,” James pointed out.

“Who _helped_ you plan this party,” Lily snickered.

“Oh right,” James muttered with a chuckle.

He didn’t know what else to say so he chose just to stare up at the moon and stars to which no doubt Lily was doing as well. James knew that Lily loved Astronomy almost as much as she loved being independent.

James eventually broke the silence. “You ready to go home for summer?”

Lily hesitated, biting her lip nervously.

“Oh come on, you can’t tell me you’re not ready for two months away from Hogwarts?” James questioned at her silence.  


That flicker of emptiness occurred in Lily’s eyes, the same one James knew so much about, as she averted them somewhere else. “I’m never ready to go…home, Potter. I mean… _Hogwarts_ is my home.”

James was taken to surprise by her answer. She had always seemed so optimistic and enthusiastic but at the mention of the word home it seemed as if her eyes clouded over with resentment for something. “You don’t like going home for the summer?”

“It’s not that I don’t like going home; it’s that I’d much rather stay here and be with my friends.”

“Oh,” was the only thing that James could thing to say.

“My home isn’t exactly like yours, I’m sure,” Lily teased, obviously trying to lighten up the mood.

“What? You don’t have a potential half-crazed, hyperactive Sirius Black living in the bedroom beside you and stealing all of your food?” James joked, leaning against the railing beside Lily.

Lily turned to him confused. “Sirius lives with you?”

James chuckled nervously, mentally slapping himself. “Oh. Um…yeah.”

Lily wanted to know why but she also knew that it was personal and if James wasn’t divulging the information on his own she shouldn’t intrude. “Oh.”

James opened his mouth and closed it uncertain if he should be spilling Sirius’ secrets but he eventually just said briefly, “He…he and his family had problems and it was just time for him to leave I guess.”

“Oh,” Lily said. “I understand.” And she did. She knew all about not having her own family and she knew that it must have been hard for him to be out on his own…at least he had someone to stay with. 

After a few minutes of surprisingly comfortable silence, Lily sighed and turned to James abruptly, asking rather harshly, “I don’t mean to sound terribly rude or anything, but is there a reason you’re out here with a girl you don’t get along with versus the crowd in there that you obviously belong in?”

James was in shock. He didn’t realize that he came off that way. Did it really seem that he’d rather be in the midst of a crowd than in the company of a wonderful conversationalist? He was speechless for a few seconds before he eventually stuttered, “Uh…well…what makes you think that I belong in a crowd?”

Lily shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess…I guess you just never tried standing out on your own. You have always been surrounded by people.”

“I may always be surrounded by a crowd but who says I wouldn’t rather be in the company of a beautiful woman like yourself.”

Lily blushed and shook her head. “Oh please. Stop the flattery act.”

James didn’t realize he was putting on an act but he tried to steer clear of any more comments about her beauty. What he wanted to say was that it wasn’t an act but she wouldn’t buy into that so instead he said, “Well, I know I’m always surrounded by a crowd, Evans, but that doesn’t mean I always appreciate it. There are times where I just need to get away.”

Lily smiled, which James noticed almost too well, and turned back to staring up at the sky. “I guess I can relate…but don’t tell anyone we have something in common. It may ruin my reputation.”

James wasn’t sure if he should nod or laugh but he couldn’t help but laugh. “You wound my heart, Evans.” 

Lily turned to give him a strange look. “You have changed so much over the year.”

James frowned. “How so?”

“Well, last year if I had said that to you, you probably would have come back with one of your infamous witty lines, something like ‘well, my reputation upholds yours so why would I want to spread around that a busybody Know-it-All like yourself has something in common with me’ and instead you just laughed and joked about it,” she replied in an almost perfect imitation of him. James shrugged. “Well, then I guess I did change because I don’t care about my reputation and I sure as hell no longer think you’re just a busybody Know-It-All.”

“Oh really? Then what do you think of me?”

He laughed. _That you’re an almost perfect angel and the girl that will always be in my dreams_. “There’s more to you, I guess, than just meets the eye,” he simply responded. “And I’m glad that I have gotten over our petty differences and attempted to see you for the girl underneath that perfect act you put on.”

“You think I put on a perfect act?”

James shrugged. “It sometimes feels that way.” 

“I’m not perfect, Potter,” Lily argued rather adamantly. 

James was taken aback by her harsh tone but pressed on anyway. “I didn’t say you were. I said you put on an act of being perfect. I, of all people, should know that no one’s perfect.”

“ _What_? ‘You of all people?’” Lily repeated in disgust. “You don’t know anything about not being perfect, Potter.”

“I know more than you think,” James shot back.

Lily glared at him. “Oh please! You have no idea what life is beyond perfection.” James opened his mouth to protest but Lily quickly moved on, unwilling to hear his interruption. “You wander around this school like you own it with your best friends practically attached to your hip. You hardly pick up a book to study and yet you’re still one of the top five students in our class. You’re the Quidditch King and the professors practically grovel at your feet. From what I hear, you’ve got that prestigious rich family and I’m sure your parents adore you like none other. You could probably get away with murder around here by just serving a detention and the girls worship you like you’re some Greek god. So don’t go telling me that you think you’re not perfect. I observe from the sidelines and it seems to me that you’ve got it all.”

_Yeah, except the girl._ “That’s not…I mean…well, appearances can be deceiving…and so can reputations,” James muttered.

Lily shook her head incredulously and turned her head away from him. “Yeah, they can be deceiving but when it comes to you, I hardly doubt _anything_ is misleading.”

“So…is that really what you think of me?” James whispered, trying to hide the disappointment and hurt that he was feeling at that moment.

“It’s what _everyone_ thinks of you, Potter,” Lily responded bitterly.

James knew he could have gone down the list of Lily’s practically perfect life as retaliation but he also knew that he didn’t want her going home for the summer angry at him. “Well…what if it’s not what I want everyone to think of me?”

Lily snorted. “Yeah, well you’re about six years too late for that.”

James shrugged. “I seem to remember not so long ago you telling me that I’ve changed over the year.”

“Well you deflated your head a bit and you lost that cocky attitude, but you can’t completely change your life around in just a few months. I’ll admit that just a few months ago, I probably would have walked inside if you came out to talk to me. But I was curious. I’m truly interested as to why you bothered to even say hi to me in the first place,” Lily said, not really sure where she was going with this. She crossed her arms, leaned against the back of the railing and stared intriguingly up at the person that used to be her worst enemy, feelings of resentment starting to build up inside of her. “You’re probably one of the most popular guys in the school, right? Oh, never mind, don’t bother responding to that—we both know the answer. So why is it that you chose to say hi to me, one of the more bookwormish types when you can be hitting on a thousand blonde bimbos who are just waiting to grovel at you? I’m not exactly high up on the popularity status, and I’m fine with that. I like my life without everyone knowing my business, however if you start hanging around me, my reputation may change. And no offense, but I like where I am. So if this is just another one of your sick jokes, just do me a favor and leave me alone? I never said I wanted to be saved by you and I certainly don’t need a pompous jock following me around. So have fun at your little party, have a great summer, and I hope you learn to stop messing around with people’s minds when you return next September.”

And with that Lily shoved past him hard, opened the door back to the commons room, took lone last demeaning look at him, and slammed the door in his face.

“Well that could have gone better…” James muttered into the vast air, groaning to himself. He thought it was going pretty well but he now knew that Lily Evans would probably never ever turn her head to James in the way he wanted. 

And at that thought, James suddenly wasn’t so interested in partying anymore for the night.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Lily walked back into the party, wondering why she was so fuming mad, but at the sight of Riley in the corner, attempted to let it go. However, as she passed the table with beverages she couldn’t help but hesitate. Smiling at a fifth-year student she knew, she quickly swiped a flask of Fire Whiskey on the table and walked over to Riley. “That’s it, Riley. Screw being Miss Goody Two-Shoes. I’m letting loose tonight.”

Riley turned around and her jaw dropped at the sight of Lily Evans taking a shot of Fire Whiskey. “Oh my God, Lily, what the hell happened to you? And most important, where was _I_ when it happened!?”

Lily laughed, cringing at the taste of Fire Whiskey slipping down her throat. “I just…just changed I guess. I’m tired of being seen as Miss Perfect and hell, I’m seventeen. It’s time for me to live a little.”

Riley giggled, turning away from Wyatt Lamden who she was previously flirting with. “C’mon, let’s go find some boys to dance with.”

Lily hesitated at first but James’ words came back to haunt her and she nodded in agreement. “Sure thing.” 

“And then we can get on to that Strip Poker thing?” she teased.

Lily glared at her and grabbed her arm protectively. “If you so as much see me attempt to take off this dress with people around, so help me God, you better stop me.”

Riley laughed. “Of course,” she replied. She passed Shane talking to his two friends, Ryan Williams and Austin Danese and knew that she could easily start there, having hooked up with Ryan less than a month earlier. 

“Hey, guys. Enjoying the party?” she asked.

“The Marauders threw it—of course we are,” Ryan snickered, feeling a tug at his heart at the sight of Riley. The whole school knew that any party the Marauders threw was a party to be at.

Riley laughed and nudged Lily to speak up, but Lily was too busy scanning the room for where James had gone off to, unbeknownst to Riley of course. “Point taken,” Riley said flirtatiously.

The other two were obviously more interested in the seductress next to Riley, realizing too late that it was the Lily Evans. “Oh my God, Lily, you look gorgeous!” Shane said in shock trying to remember the last time he saw Lily in anything other than her school robes.

Lily blushed. “Well, thank you. Um…do you want to dance?” 

Riley was completely taken aback by Lily’s take-charge attitude. Never in a million years would Lily have ever asked a boy to dance. She really wished she knew what had come over Lily but whatever it was, she certainly wasn’t angry.

Shane grinned. “Sure.”

One hour, about ten dances, and probably five drinks later, Lily was having the time of her life…not that she would remember any of it in the morning.

Kay pulled Riley aside at about one-thirty, practically in a panic. “What the hell did you do to her?” she hissed in amazement.

Riley shrugged. “I didn’t do anything!” she hissed. “I saw her walk inside from her famous balcony ledge and seconds later, she was gulping down two shots and asking Shane Redford to dance.”

Kay didn’t answer right away but she turned to give Riley a dubious look. “You mean _kissing_ Shane Redford…”

“ _What_!?” Riley shouted, immediately searching the room for their best friend. Sure enough, she was sitting on Shane Redford’s lap on a lounge chair in the corner of the room making out with Shane Redford, on display for everyone to stare at her. 

Which is exactly what everyone was doing. It wouldn’t be a surprise if she was all everyone would talk about in the morning. It wasn’t everyday Lily Evans was caught making out in the middle of the commons room.

And the sight of it made James absolutely sick. He knew that Lily wasn’t exactly fond of him but watching her making out with someone else made his stomach drop.  It was the first time he had ever seen Lily interested in the opposite sex and it made him feel so distressed. And yet he couldn’t tear his eyes away from them. Why was she willing to kiss Shane but not him? Really, what was the big difference? Sure, he was nicer to her and probably had respected her since he had known her. And yeah, he was Head Boy so obviously had the same moral views as her. And yeah they talked a lot and knew how to carry on a conversation. And maybe…okay this wasn’t helping him.

He eventually looked away from the two and traipsed up to his empty bedroom. He couldn’t deal with the party anymore and the thought suddenly occurred to him that he was tired of dealing with Lily Evans as well. She clearly wanted nothing to do with him and it was unhealthy pining over her, knowing that she didn't want him back.  He wanted to get over her. He wanted to move on. And this was the first time in a year that these thoughts were actually breaking through. If Lily Evans didn’t want to be with him, than he was going to do everything within his power to stay away from her.

He took out the two photos of her he had and sighed. She looked so beautiful and carefree in both of them. Like she didn’t have a worry on her mind. 

And before he knew what he was doing, he ripped them up and threw them in the trash.

If Lily Evans thought him talking to her was just a sick joke, then fine. If he thought he was trying to save her, then so be it. He would just leave her alone like she wanted. He would stop trying to pretend there was something between them because it was just getting his hopes up for yet again another letdown. 

Lily Evans was going to be the farthest thing from his mind. This summer was going to be different. Instead of longing to be with her, he was going to find another girl. Instead of wondering where she was and what she was doing, he was going to take that extra time and think about spending more time with Marauders and less time thinking about her. 

But James wondered if he had it in him. Could he really get over a year of yearning? A long year that was spent absolutely dying to be closer to Lily? Could he really move on? 

He didn’t know if he had it in him but with a glance at the torn pictures in the waste-paper basket, he knew he had to. For his sake.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

**A/N:** Like I said, I like this chapter better--it really gets into the characters more and their relationship with each other. Please tell me what you think. 


	3. Of Gossip, Slytherins, & Goodbye Kisses

**A/N:** Here's the next chapter. I don't have much to say but thanks for those who have read it and reviewed.  And for those who asked, yes I first posted this on fanfiction.net , but I'm updating it and making it better and posting it here.   


 

 

**Tears on the Balcony**

By ByeByeBirdie

Chapter 3: Of Gossip, Slytherins, and Goodbye Kisses

 

 

&&&&&&&&

Sirius, Remus, and Peter knew to be curious when they had returned to their room at three-thirty in the morning and saw that James was already asleep with the outfit he had been wearing throughout the night still on and his curtain still pushed to the side. 

They definitely knew something was up when they woke up the next morning at nine and saw that James’ bed was made, he was nowhere in sight, and all of his stuff had already been placed in the hallway for the house elves to collect for the Hogwarts Express, meaning he had to have gotten up early enough to pack it all.

Remus walked out of the bathroom and saw that Sirius had just woken up, rather groggily, yawning profusely. “James is gone.”

But Sirius was certainly awake then. “ _What_!?”

Remus shrugged, starting to organize his stuff for packing. “He’s not in his bed and his stuff is in the hallway.”

Sirius growled. “Bastard.”

Remus gave him a curious look. “I’m sorry but how exactly does that make him a bastard?”

“It’s our last breakfast together! We always go together in order to watch the Slytherins endure their last prank of the year!” he whined, climbing out of bed slowly.

Remus rolled his eyes and took his textbooks out of his desk drawers. “I’m sure he’ll be back for our last breakfast together. He wouldn’t miss it. And we still have half an hour before the Great Hall doors close for breakfast anyway.”

Sirius shrugged and took out his towel to hop into the shower. He walked into the bathroom and then it dawned on him. He slowly walked out and leaned against the doorframe. “You know what? I bet you anything he saw Lily making out with the Head Boy and freaked-”

Remus’ mouth dropped as the books fell from his hands to the floor, startling Peter on the other side of the room. “ ** _WHAT_**!?” Remus shouted.

“Oh. Apparently _you_ didn’t.”

“Lily Evans was making out with Shane?!” Remus shrieked in what sounded like a feminine voice. “Like our innocent little Lily? The girl who is so gung-ho about her studies that she hasn’t had time to even look at boys? The same girl who we were uncertain has ever even _kissed_ a boy?”

“Well I’m not uncertain anymore,” Sirius snickered. “They were all over each other like chocolate sauce on vanilla ice cream….oh yum, let’s go get some vanilla ice cream.”

Remus stared at him. “But…I…she…Lily…it’s nine o’clock in the morning and you want vanilla ice cream??”

“You’re right, what a crazy idea,” Sirius said shaking his head incredulously. “Chocolate is _definitely_ more of a morning flavor.”

Remus stared at him blankly.

Sirius grinned.

“Okay, back to Lily kissing Shane,” Remus said slowly.

“Oh _man_ that wasn’t a pretty picture,” Peter interrupted with a mumble.

Remus stared at him. “ _You_ saw it, too!? How come neither one of you told me!?”

“I-I didn’t realize it was such a big deal,” Peter muttered groggily. “It wasn’t exactly a pretty picture; in fact, it was a bit disturbing.”

Sirius nodded and shuddered. "Yeah, there were going at it like _I'd_ be going at it with some girl on a chair in the corner of the common room." 

“Even so, this is _Lily Evans_ we’re talking about. Making out with some guy isn’t exactly high on her list of goals and that information should have been passed to me immediately!” he groaned. 

“Okay, well the next time Lily-bean is drunk and making out with some guy—preferably me—I will let you know,” Sirius snickered sarcastically, stifling a yawn.

Remus pouted. “Because I’m sure this is going to be a reoccurring experience for her.”

“You never know,” Peter laughed.

“I still can’t believe she _did_ that!!” Remus cried out, again in shock. “I mean…are we _sure_ it was her?”

Sirius laughed. “I’m just telling you how I saw it; it was _definitely_ Lily. I mean, there aren't that many redheads in our school in the first place and secondly, I remember it was her because Gilmore threw the mug of butterbeer in my face after I told her that if her best friend was making out with someone, so should she.”

Remus laughed. “You will forever be turned down by that girl so why do you even bother?”

Sirius gave him a look. “Uh…because she’s the hottest girl in the entire school.”

Remus laughed and rolled his eyes. “Oh yeah, should have known that with you, it’s _always_ shallow.” 

Sirius simply grinned and closed the bathroom door, turning on the water and hopping into the shower, yelling over the water. “I’m just telling you how I saw it!” he cried. “I don’t know what made Lily Evans change into such a rebel, but she was definitely drunk off Fire Whiskey by the end of the night!” 

Remus shook his head, knowing that something was up with Lily but mostly just worrying about his friend. Remus had a feeling that if James did indeed see Lily kissing someone else, his heart was just a little bit torn. Even though James kept his feeling to himself, it was obvious to him, and to Sirius and Peter too, that he has more just a little crush on her. It was almost as if he were obsessed and completely infatuated with her.

But Remus had a feeling that maybe James was trying to suppress his feelings after what he had seen.

Remus sighed and bit his lip nervously. He really hoped James was feeling okay.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

The Hogwarts Express was leaving in fifteen minutes and Lily could hardly take a step without her head pounding and her stomach churning.

Needless to say, when she had had first awaken at eight-thirty, she was not feeling well. Instead of getting up and taking a shower like she normally would have, she rested her head back on her pillow and slept for another forty-five minutes.

Kay and Riley were certainly no help either. When they attempted to drag her out of bed at nine-fifteen because breakfast was going to be over soon, at the very word of ‘breakfast’ Lily immediately felt the need to throw up.

“I’m so proud of you!” Riley squealed when Lily emerged from the bathroom. “Our little Lily has had her first hangover.”

“Yeah and I’m never doing that again,” she mumbled incoherently as she crawled back into bed to sleep for another forty minutes.

Eventually she did get up and take a quick shower and was now sitting in her usual compartment with Kay and Riley talking enthusiastically about their summers with Lily propping her head up on the window with her eyes closed. 

Their compartment door slid open and in walked none other than the Marauders. Lily opened her eyes and groaned at the sight of them. She knew that if there were anybody who would blatantly joke about the night before it would be them.

“Good morning,” Remus greeted, obviously uncertain what he was doing there.

“How is everybody _feeling_ this morning?” Sirius asked, with a huge cheeky grin on his face, particularly staring at Lily.

Lily glared at him. “If you came in here just to give me a hard time, Sirius, I advise you to leave before you find yourself without your head.”

Sirius laughed. “So I’m assuming that’s code for ‘I have a hangover?’”

Lily narrowed her eyes at him. “You are completely unbearable, you know that?”

“Oh totally, but I wouldn’t be me without that unique quality.”

“Sod off, Black,” Riley growled.

“What? I can’t walk into my fellow classmates’ compartment and just ask how their nights were?” Sirius asked innocently, his typical smug smirk resting on his face. “I think you are being rather forward with me, don’t you?”

“You didn’t come in here just to selflessly ask how our nights were,” Riley quickly shot back, glaring irately at him. “You came in here deliberately to put Lily down and I’m sorry if I’m not going to let you toy with my friend’s feelings.”

“Who’s toying?”

“Get out!” Riley demanded immediately, standing up and facing him firmly.

Sirius rolled his eyes. “Geez, someone’s a little testy this morning. You jealous that your friend found someone to mess around with but you were without a playmate last night? I know how much you enjoy sleeping around, but-”

Riley slapped him and swallowed hard, obviously taking Sirius’ words to heart. “First of all, I did make out with someone last night _without_ sleeping with him, not that it's any of your business. Second of all, I don’t think you, Mr. Don Juan of Hogwarts, should be ridiculing my sexual relationships.”

“Who’s ridiculing?” Sirius sneered, rubbing his cheek. “I’m simply stating the obvious.”

“Well unless you want another fucking hand print on your other cheek, I’d retreat to another compartment and stop bugging the hell out of us,” Riley snapped.

Sirius rolled his eyes and took his hand away from his cheek, revealing a big red hand mark. “I’m not bugging anyone,” he said with an innocent shrug. “I’m just making my round of good-byes before I get off the train and am incapable to find anyone.”

“Well sorry, but there are no giggly sluts in this compartment,” Riley shot back, standing her ground.

Sirius slowly threw his head back with an evil chuckle, obviously finding what she had said very humorous. “I beg to differ," he stated, staring directly at her.

"Don't you have some girl to snog??" Riley retorted.

"Don't you have some innocent guy to harrass?" Sirius shot back. 

“GUYS!” Kay eventually intervened, literally stepping in between them before they broke out in a fight. “You guys are going to have a whole summer apart. Can’t you guys just give it a rest for one day??”

There was no reply. Sirius and Riley were simply staring each other down, obviously wishing that looks could kill.

“We get enough of this during the year. I don’t need one of your screaming matches to be the last thing I hear before I go home for the summer,” Remus added stubbornly.

Again, Sirius and Riley just ignored him, glaring at each other, eyes blazing with utter hatred hoping one would back down. But being as they were both uncontrollably stubborn, neither one made the first move.

“Why don’t we just leave?” Peter muttered, staring at a very silent James beside him who hadn’t even said one word since they entered the compartment.

James saw Peter’s confused glanced and muttered, “Yeah,” avoiding eye-contact with everyone in the room.

James and Peter walked out and ran right into a group of people that everyone tended to stay away from, the Slytherin Gang.

“Going somewhere, Pettigrew?” Lucius Malfoy, practically the head of his gang and a graduating seventh-year, sneered.

Everyone in the compartment groaned and only then did Riley and Sirius turn away from each other. No good would come out of an argument breaking out between the Slytherins and the Gryffindors.

“We were just leaving, Malfoy,” Remus said firmly, glaring at him as he slid out of the compartment with Peter and James, Sirius still stuck in the compartment doorway.

“And if you know what’s good for you, you will too,” James added, crossing his arms powerfully.

Rodolphus Lestrange, a sixth-year known to be the reigning Slytherin leader, rolled his eyes. “Oh, well now I’m convinced. Please don’t let us get in your way. We’ll just step aside and let you move on,” he replied sarcastically.

“Don’t make me use this,” Sirius snarled, immediately pulling out his wand and pointing it at them all.

They all exchanged doubtful looks and chuckled harmoniously. “I hate to be the intelligent person to rain on your parade, Black, but I’ve already graduated,” Lucius snickered. “I can do whatever the hell I want with you and Dumbledore can’t do anything. He’s not even here to save your ass like he’s done so many times in the past.”

Sirius rolled his eyes. “If I remember correctly, you were the one on the ground being strangled by me last week so I really think you’re the one who has been saved by Dumbledore so many times in the past. And as regard to graduation, only three of you have graduated,” he shot back, glancing at Serpus Avery and Winifred Marshalls as well. “So I really think we could take you.”

Bellatrix Black, Sirius’ cousin, stepped up to him and laughed in his face. “What makes you think the rest of us wouldn’t jump in to kick your asses as well?”

“Because if your mother ever found out you were fighting without being seventeen yet, she’d send you to military school,” Sirius snickered.

Bellatrix scowled at him. “I’ll be seventeen in just a few days so there’s really nothing she can do about it.”

“Except send you to military school,” Sirius snarled.

“At least I am a true Black,” she ridiculed in his face. “I’m not the one who ran away from home because I couldn’t deal with my Mommy and Daddy.”

All of the Slytherins laughed hysterically, high-fiving each other and patting Bellatrix on the back, at the thought of Sirius escaping from his own family as the Marauders all stared at Bellatrix angrily.

Sirius glared at her with such an icy stare, Lily, Riley, and Kay couldn’t help but feel a little endangered with all of them in their compartment doorway and them having no way to escape.

“Sirius, let it go,” Remus said softly to him. “She’s not worth it…none of them are.”

“Aww, does the little prefect need to come to your rescue, Black?” Augustus Rookwood snickered, rolling his eyes at how pathetic Sirius seemed to be at that moment.

“If you know what’s good for you, Rookwood, you’ll fuck off,” Sirius growled in a low, deep voice full of vengeance, pointing his wand directly in Augustus’ face.

Lily couldn’t take any more of this. She immediately stood up and practically shoved Sirius out of the way while intervening their little debate-fest. “Why can’t you all just get back to your own compartment and stop bothering us?”

Every single head turned to her and Lily suddenly felt like she was on display the way they were all staring her down, wondering what had possessed her to stand up to the whole Slytherin gang. 

Finally, Lucius spoke up. “Because this is _so_ much more entertaining.”

“If you want entertainment, how about I throw you off the train when we’re moving and we can let the younger students point and laugh at you?” Sirius shot back, causing the Gryffindors to all chuckle.

“I’m sure you’re already used to people pointing and laughing at you,” James snickered, pounding Sirius’ fist energetically. 

“Yeah well once I pound your face in, you’ll be the one pointed at and laughed at,” Lucius snarled.

“You couldn’t pound my face in even if you tried,” James snapped.

“So I hear from a few valuable sources you’re planning on becoming an Auror after you graduate, Potter,” Rodolphus sneered, steerign the conversation elsewhere. “Just like your father, am I right? Do you follow everything he does? Are you going to marry some wench just like he did, as well?”

Anybody in their right minds would’ve chosen that moment to stop talking seeing the angered look on James’ face, so red with fury that he was almost ready to blow up.

“But I guess unattractiveness runs in the family, doesn’t it? I’m surprised your friends don’t run from you the way little kids run from your mother, Potter,” he snickered.

James reached for his wand in his pocket but Remus was a step ahead of him.

“James, stop,” Remus said, swiping his wand. “They’re not worth it.”

“Yeah, they’re just scared that you may end up sending them to Azkaban once you become an Auror and they become death-eaters,” Sirius added, glaring full-fledged at them both.

“Must I remind you that you’ve been invited to join the dark side, too, Black,” Lucius pointed out evilly. “By the new Dark Lord especially, the oh-so-wonderful Lord Voldemort. He sends his regards, Black.” He grinned immensely, ignoring the gasps of Lily, Riley, and Kay from inside the compartment. 

When James had said the night before that Sirius had problems with his family, Lily had no clue that they were death-eaters…or death-eater supporters. Lily suddenly felt even more understanding to Sirius’ situation, a bit of pity rising inside of her for him. 

Sirius tried to ignore their surprise, hating Lucius with every fiber of his being. “You know where I want you to put that invitation, Lucius; I just hope it fits with your head stuck up there, too.”

“Guys, you all had your fun, you said your parting good-byes, so why don’t you just get on outta here and quit causing problems?” Lily asked, speaking up again in hopes they would listen.

“Come on,” Winifred Marshalls, one of the more practical Slytherins, finally spoke up. “She’s right…”

“Besides, we can just go cause problems elsewhere,” Severus Snape indicated.

“This isn’t over,” Serpus Avery muttered. The Slytherins hesitated before finally turning around and unwillingly left the compartment. 

“Oh, and I hope you have a great future as a death-eater, Malfoy!” Sirius cried after him.

Lucius turned around and grinned. “Oh, I will. Especially in a few years when I’ll get the opportunity to kill you and the rest of your little friends…especially the Mudbloods.”

Lily rolled her eyes; she had learned not to let them get to her but the fact that he and the rest of the Slytherins still constantly say it had always bothered her.

“Don’t you dare call her that again!” James cried after them.

Lucius flipped him the middle finger and laughed, practically skipping away from them he was so thrilled by getting in the last word.

“Potter, I can handle myself,” Lily snapped. “Now if you don’t mind, we were having a perfectly good conversation before you four butted in.” She pushed Sirius out of the doorway and slammed the compartment door closed.

“Hm…I believe we’re not wanted,” Sirius stated matter-of-factly.

“And I do believe you’re stating the obvious,” Remus joked. “C’mon, there’s got to be an empty compartment around here somewhere.”

James sighed and followed his friends. He was just trying to help and Lily, yet again, snapped at him. He rolled his eyes at the situation and knew it was definitely time to move on to someone else, someone a bit more appreciative of him…he just wish he could get Lily from the night before out of his mind and stop thinking about her.

&&&&&&&&&&&

“Did you guys know that Sirius was invited to join the dark-side?” Lily dared to ask once everyone had left their compartment.

Riley bit her lip and sighed nervously. “No…but I’m not surprised,” she admitted.

“What?” Kay cried. “Why wouldn’t you be surprised?”

“Well…it’s just that…it’s Black. And-“

“ _What_?? Oh, come on, that’s unfair!” Kay retaliated. “Just because you don’t get along with him doesn’t mean he’s suddenly dark-side material.”

Riley sighed again. “That’s not what I meant,” she muttered, grabbing a magazine out from her bag. 

When she didn’t continue, Lily and Kay exchanged confused looks. “So…?” Lily asked.

Riley looked up. “What?” she asked innocently.

“What did you mean?”

Riley gave them both strange looks. “By what?” Riley asked.

Lily and Kay stared dumbfounded at her before Lily turned to Kay and asked, “Okay, you heard that Riley said ‘that’s not what I meant’ right? I’m not going crazy?”

“Well that’s really another question,” Kay teased. Lily gave her a look. “But yeah, I heard it.”

“So Riley, we’re both witnesses,” Lily explained. “Tell us what you meant.” 

Riley shrugged. “I’m not sure if I should be telling you this.”

“That has never stopped you before,” Kay pointed out.

“Oh, yeah,” Riley laughed. “It…it’s just that….” 

“Yeah?” both Kay and Lily responded anxiously, urging her to go on.

Riley sighed and closed the magazine. “Black’s family consists of all dark-side supporters. And when he was younger…well, Sirius and Rodolphus Lestrange used to be best friends. When they were much younger of course. They used to live down the street from each other. It’s how Lestrange met Bellatrix actually.”

“ _What_!?” both Lily and Kay cried in complete shock.

“Sirius and Lestrange? Best friends?” Lily asked. “Are you sure?”

Riley nodded and turned away from her friends’ shocked faces. “Yeah. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true. When Black was sorted into Gryffindor, he didn’t want anything to do with the Slytherins—he realized they were all scum. And when he met James, Remus, and Peter he realized even further that he didn’t have to be someone he didn’t want to be. Granted, his family wasn’t too happy about that but…well, he’s definitely happier now than he ever would have been if he was sorted into Slytherin.”

Riley finally looked up at saw both their jaws dropped staring at Riley like she had grown an extra head. “What?” Riley asked innocently.

“How do you know all this? You guys hate each other,” Lily pointed out.

“Yeah now we do,” Riley pointed out. “But we used to be really good friends, remember?”

“Oh, right,” Lily murmured, suddenly very curious. “Why aren’t you anymore?”

Riley glared at her.

“I’m assuming you’re not going to answer that then,” Lily snickered. 

Kay rolled her eyes. “I just don’t get it. Sirius doesn’t seem the type that would talk about his past with someone…anyone.”

“He doesn’t. He hates to but you learn a few things when hanging out with the guy,” Riley admitted.

“So…why aren’t you guys friends again?” Kay dared to ask a second time.

Riley glared at her. “That’s not important. Okay, I told you, but now that’s done. Let’s not talk about it. Let’s talk about how next year we’re going to be ruling the school!”

Kay and Lily shared a look of uncertainty. They knew that Riley was hiding something but they also knew that Riley would get frustrated with them if they questioned her about it. So they changed the subject hoping that Riley would someday talk about why she and Sirius suddenly changed their minds about each other.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

A few hours later, they arrived at the station, Lily finally without a headache and stomachache, Kay and Riley excited about their summers, Sirius and Peter hyped about the prank they played on the Slytherins earlier, Remus disappointed about leaving his friends, and James still dwelling on what Lily had said to him the night before and what he had seen between her and Shane.

“Lily, I’m going to miss you so much!” Riley was complaining. “Are you sure you can’t come with me to Bermuda? My family really wants to meet you!”

Lily shook her head. “I’m sorry. You guys know my…my parents. Do you honestly think I’d rather be in downtown London than Bermuda?”

Riley gave her a sympathetic look. “Yeah I know. But it would have been so awesome if you could come with my family, Kay, and me,” she reiterated.

Lily nodded. “I know.”

“RILEY!” a group of deep, male voices called out from across the way.

Riley groaned. “I was afraid they’d all come,” she mumbled, talking about her three older brothers.

Kay grinned and Lily forced out a grin. Looking at Riley’s family, she couldn’t help but feel a little jealous.

“Hey, little sis. Hey girls,” Rafe, the oldest, greeted, grabbing Riley and swinging around.

Riley groaned again. “Why must we go through this every time you come and pick me up at the station?”

“Because it embarrasses you,” Lance, only a year older than Riley and who had just graduated, announced, ruffling up her hair.

Riley rolled her eyes. “Well you are the one who just graduated so I’ve had to live with you for the past six years already. I’ve gotten enough embarrassment from you.”

“Yes but the fun never stops when it comes to the Gilmore clan,” Caleb, the second oldest, joked.

“C’mon, let’s go before you start serenading me or something like that.”

They all laughed. “That was only one year and yet you never let it go,” Caleb joked. 

“How could she?” a deep voice said behind them all. "You guys couldn't hold a tune if your life depended on it." 

They all turned towards the voice and the Gilmore clan all grinned. “Well now that Shrimp is here, let’s start our serenading,” Rafe kidded, grabbing James and ruffling up his hair.

“ARGH!” James cried, trying desperately to get away from his grip. “I knew I’d regret coming over here.”

They all laughed. 

“And why exactly do you still call him Shrimp?” Riley joked. “He’s almost as tall as you now.”

Rafe shrugged. “Yeah but he’ll always be my little Shrimp,” he said with a teasing grin.

“Man am I going to have fun with that name,” Kay joked.

James scowled. “I knew I’d regret coming over here,” he repeated.

“So is your mother coming or do you want to hitch a ride with us?” Caleb asked.

James shook his head. “Nah, she’s coming. But you know how she is. If she doesn’t park within a couple yards of the station she’ll wait until a spot opens up.”

They all laughed.

“So how’s Brite?” Rafe asked, talking about James’ oldest brother. “I haven’t seen much of him lately. Not since he moved in with Bianca.”

“Oh he’s good. Everyone thinks he’s going to ask Bianca to marry him some point soon,” James explained.

“Aw man. I can remember when he still thought girls had cooties,” Rafe said, shaking his head in disbelief. 

They all grinned. “That must have been such a long time ago,” Lily said, trying hard to avoid eye-contact with James.

“Well if you call eighteen a long time ago,” Rafe kidded, and they all laughed.

“Okay, I’m going to go attempt to find my mom, but I’ll see you guys back at home I suppose,” James said, waving bye to them all and running over to where Sirius was hitting on a few graduated girls for his last time.

“So where are Drew and Billy?” Caleb asked, talking about the two youngest of the Gilmore clan who were previously a fifth-year and a fourth-year in Gryffindor.

Riley shrugged. “How should I know?”

“Oh, hey, there’s my family,” Kay spoke up, spotting her parents and her younger brother across the station. She turned to Lily and gave her a puppy-dog face. “I can’t believe I won’t see you until September. How am I supposed to wait that long?”

Lily gave her an apologetic look. “I don’t know. I’m going to miss you guys so much.”

“Group hug!” Riley cried, charging her two friends with a tight embrace.

“Okay!” Lance cried, him and his two brothers closing in on them as well, with Kay, Riley, Lily being smothered in the middle.

“Agh, can’t breathe!” Lily muttered jokingly. 

They all separated and with one last hug for each, Kay and Riley went there separate ways, leaving Lily standing alone on the platform, something she had gotten used to as the years passed.

She picked up her cat’s cage, put her trunk on wheels, and started walking away to catch her next train when she heard her name being called from behind her.

“Evans, hold up!”

Lily whirled around and groaned inwardly. “Hey, Potter,” she said unenthusiastically, wishing that when he left to go find his mother it would have been her last time seeing him. “What do you want?”

“I need to talk to you,” he said firmly, staring her down.

“But I’m going to miss my…uh…I-I mean, my...um…parents are waiting for me,” she lied, wishing that that could be true.

“This will only take a sec,” he promised. When he saw her hesitation he sighed. “It’s important.”

Lily sighed, glancing at her watch. “Okay, fine. But I only have five minute to spare.”

He dragged her over to a secluded corner, making sure that no one was around to hear them or see them, and took a few deep breaths.

Lily rolled her eyes. “What is it, Potter? I don’t have all day, y’know.”

“I know, I know,” he said hurriedly. He glanced to the right and left again and with one last deep breath he blurted out, “I hate what you said about me last night because it’s not true. You always seem to hate it when people judge you and yet that’s exactly what you did to me last night. I know I shouldn’t be so worked up about what one person said about me, but I can’t seem to get your words out of my mind.”

Lily gave him a strange look. “This is what you wanted to talk about? Why-“

“No, let me finish or I may never get this out,” James interrupted, grabbing the cage in her hand and placing it on the ground quickly.

“Uh…okay,” Lily said awkwardly.

“I didn’t come up to you yesterday because of some sick joke. I’ve never tried to save you from whatever your reputation is and I don’t expect you to grovel at me. I didn’t say hi to you just because I felt sorry for you and I would never potentially harass you in any way. I know I’ve been an ass for the past six years, but I thought I’ve made it pretty clear in the past few months that I want to change. I don’t want to be just part of some crowd. I hate that I’m not seen as an individual and my life is far from idealistic. I know everyone in this school sees me as some high and almighty king who seems to have everything, but that's not me or even close it.” James took another deep breath, refusing to make eye-contact with Lily wondering what the hell was running through his mind.

Lily felt almost guilty at this point. She didn’t realize that James would take everything she said so close to heart and she was very curious as to why he sought her out to tell her all of this. She wanted to interrupt but it was obvious that James wouldn’t let her.

“I don’t have the one thing I’ve wanted for a long time—the one thing I’ve wanted but couldn’t seem to get. The…the one person who doesn’t seem to understand me and yet I want her to so badly. The one person who keeps running away from me when all I want to do is…talk to her and get to know her. Since the beginning of the year, I…I..uh…I’ve had this urge to get to know you better.” He paused and forced himself to look at her, who suddenly gasped and stared up at James incredulously.

He couldn’t be saying what she thinks he’s saying…could he?

"Wh-what?" Lily gasped, uncertain how to respond. "Uh...but...when...I-I...since _when_?" 

James turned away from her and sighed, ignoring her question. “You are the most…intriguing person I have ever met. Everything about you makes me want to know more. And the worst part about that is that you never let me. All I wanted to do last night was talk to you…it’s all I _ever_ want. Nothing more; yet you turned it into this huge deal and I suddenly realized that whatever fantasy I had with you and me together will never come true. I just have to face it and come to terms with the fact that you and I will never be together, much less friends. Now when I look into your eyes, instead of seeing that hint of mystery, I just see empty dullness. Now whenever I see you smile, I suddenly don’t feel the urge to make you laugh again. You were right last night—you never asked me to come up to talk to you; I did that on my own hoping that perhaps you could learn to be welcoming. Well obviously I was wrong. Every time I see you, in the hallway, class, Great Hall, late at night reading by the fireplace cuddled under a blanket, you just become more gorgeous and a sudden urge to protect you comes over me. But you made it clear last night that you don’t need me nor do you want me.” James swallowed hard and took a deep breath, ready to finish what he came for. “So I’m taking the summer off and moving on to someone who could learn to appreciate me. I…I-I just needed to tell you all that before I could. I-I needed you to know how I felt about you truly. I-I just wanted to let you know…before I move on, I mean. And…and there’s something else I need to do before I go. Something I wanted to do a long time ago and something I need to do now to know I’m doing the right thing. Something I need to do before I lose the nerve.”

“Potter, I-“ Lily quickly interrupted.

And before Lily knew what was happening, James cupped his hands around Lily’s face, lifted it up to his, and didn’t hesitate to kiss her passionately on the lips, a following feeling of intimacy that came out of nowhere. He hesitantly let his lips linger on hers before plunging his tongue inside her mouth with a ferocity not foreseen.

They finally stepped apart from each other, both out of breath and trembling all over.

“Have a good summer… _Lily_ ,” he added, emphasizing her name, loving the sound of it on his tongue. He quickly picked up his bags and sauntered off to find Sirius and his parents to return to the world of reality the world where he no longer would do that to Lily Evans…the world where he knew he couldn’t do that to Lily Evans.

What bothered him the most about it was how willing Lily seemed to be at the idea. She didn’t immediately pull away or slap him like James had suspected. She opened her mouth to his and almost welcomed him. And at the second the sparks were igniting inside of him, they had to separate and he knew it was all over. But he also knew it was for the best, before he exploded in lust.

Lily collapsed against the station’s bench in completely shock, the fervor still exploding inside of her. But as she attempted to figure out what had come over both of them, she couldn’t help but notice just how absolutely fierce it all was. Her whole body was trembling and as she briefly touched her lips where James’ just were, she could feel how swollen they were from the passion. How could something that should have gone so wrong feel so right? And why was she feeling this way about it? She was supposed to be disgusted at the thought of James Potter kissing her…but she wasn’t. And it wasn’t as if she wanted to fling her arms out and welcome him into her life or anything but she didn’t know if she could just let him walk away after that.

“James, wait!” she called out, not realizing what she was doing until she heard his name suddenly being slipped off her tongue, the name she forced out of her life for the past six years.

But he didn’t turn around. He heard her loud and clear but he just wanted to make a clean getaway. That summer was going to be a whole new experience for him and he just wanted to walk away from Lily and the situation and head in another direction. He was glad he told Lily how he felt and he was glad that he had impulsively kissed her. And he was glad that he was planning on moving on. He couldn’t wait around forever.

Lily watched him walk off and felt the urge to run after him. But she knew that if she didn’t rush over to the other side of the tracks, she’d miss her train. And if she missed her train, she’d have no way of getting back to the orphanage until the next day and she personally didn’t need to be restricted of any activities in just the first day of getting back.

So Lily let him go. 


	4. Of Head Girl, Head Boy, & Girlfriends

**A/N:** Not much to say here except sorry it took so long. I hope you've enjoyed reading the past few chapters as much as I've enjoyed writing them.

 

**Tears on the Balcony**

By ByeByeBirdie

Chapter 4: Of Head Girl, Head Boy, & Girlfriends

 

&&&&&&&

Summer was supposed to be a time for Hogwarts students to feel free and unrestricted. A time to be adventurous and spontaneous; a time for everyone’s inner wild child to emerge and wreak havoc. However, over time these ideas seemed to be more of a fallacy than actual truth.

Two months after they stepped off the station into the real world, everyone was back at the station ready to finish off another year at Hogwarts. Most people were excited about it; some more happy about seeing their friends than getting back to work, and some people simply just wanted to go back to lying on the beach and having no worries at all. Whatever their outlook on being back at Hogwarts was, the platform was swarming with Hogwarts students and their families by the time Lily arrived, later than she would have liked. She attempted to search the crowds for her friends but it was impossible. Coming through the barrier was hustle and bustle enough but she was being shoved in every which way and didn’t see any familiar faces surprisingly, mostly younger students saying goodbye to their parents which was a sign of a first-year. She sighed, knowing she should have expected this, and pushed her way through everyone on the platform to get to the train and get settled in, uttering a simple ‘hi’ and even ‘how was your summer’ to a few acquaintances she passed on the way to the train, but not really in the mood to see anyone but her friends. But she was too polite to not stop and talk to those she knew. 

Lily was glad to be back. Two months away from her friends and her real home were two months too many. She practically skipped down the train corridors, peeking into each compartments for any signs of her friends, again making small talk with the few people she recognized and knew, and didn’t get the slightest bit bothered by the sight of the Slytherins, which was proving to be a good day indeed.

“ _LILY_!!” a loud, rather high-pitched voice squealed.

Lily peeked inside and suddenly felt the urge to squeal back, suddenly wondering when she became such a girly-girl. “ _Riley_!” she shouted, dropping her stuff immediately and embracing Riley tightly.

“I missed you so much!” she exclaimed, hugging her again.

Lily grinned. “I know. I’m so glad to be back!”

“How was your summer?” Riley asked. 

Lily hesitated. Lily spent most of her summer reflecting on that one ardent moment at the station with James. Every night she dreamt of that heart-tugging kiss and every morning she woke up with her lips tingling with the feeling of true passion. And every day she attempted to write a letter to James simply asking him how his summer was going—she felt that she owed him something. Then every evening she assured herself their three seconds of heated zeal was nothing; that she’ll go back to Hogwarts in the fall and everything will be back to normal. By August, she was convinced that it was all a dream and that nothing happened. And by September 1st, she had no idea what to believe anymore. She couldn’t help but think that it was the worst summer ever.

“It was great,” Lily lied. “How was Bermuda with your family and Kay?”

Riley grinned, showing off her tan to Lily. “So absolutely amazing. Let me tell you: island boys? So cute…and _very_ good in bed,” she snickered.

Lily laughed and rolled her eyes. She should have known that Riley would find a boy-toy to mess around with considering she spent two weeks there. “Anyone a keeper?”

Riley laughed. “When was the last time I met a guy who was a ‘keeper?’”

Lily hesitated. “In your previous lifetime perhaps?”

“Bingo!” Riley teased with a hearty laugh.

Lily laughed along. “So, did Kay find any island loving?”

Riley gagged. “Ugh, do _not_ remind me!”

Lily gave her a curious look. “What? Did you walk in on her with someone?”

“ _UGH_!” Riley groaned, hunching over in obvious disgust.

“Oh my God, you did!” Lily squealed, covering her mouth with her hands in absolute shock. “You have completely corrupted that girl haven’t you?”

Riley shuddered and shut her eyes at the thought of the memory.

“Well? What did you see?” Lily giggled, wanting to know every last detail of her friends’ accidental walk-in on destiny.

“Kay was with…with… _Lance_ ,” Riley whispered, shaking her head in disapproval.

Lily gasped and dropped her jaw. “No _way_! Your older brother!?”

Riley gave her a look. “No the other Lance you know. Yes of _course_ my brother.”

“Ahh, so I see you’ve already told her the story?” Kay said, walking into the compartment with a huge grin on her face wearing all black to show off her Bermudan tan.

“KAY!” Lily cried, immediately jumping up off the seat and jumping literally into Kay’s arms. 

“Oof,” Kay said, forced to drop all of her stuff and embrace Lily.

Riley just made a face. “I still can’t believe you were making out with my brother…ugh, that thought still haunts me. I am never inviting you on family trips again,” she teased.

Kay laughed and took a seat, draping her feet on the seat across from her. “I am exhausted. I can’t wait until we get to Hogwarts so I can just crawl into bed and sleep all night.”

“Yeah and wake up at seven for breakfast,” Lily snickered. “Oh and nice change of subject.”

Kay groaned. “Is it really necessary to wake up at seven?”

“What can I say? I’m just the Head Girl looking out for her two best friends,” Lily grinned, waiting for her two friends to squeal and congratulate her excessively.

But they didn’t. Instead they exchanged guilty looks and turned back to Lily with unconvinced looks on their faces.

“Okay, this is where you guys are supposed to shout Hooray, jump up and down, maybe even give me a few hugs or something, and then throw me a big party tonight in my private quarters,” Lily explained, ignoring their nervous glances.

“Of course we’ll be throwing you a big party for tonight but until we start congratulating you, you might want to know who your fellow Head Boy is,” Riley said, biting her lip nervously.

Lily groaned. “Oh God, I was so sure it would be Remus Lupin. He was the best sixth-year guy prefect out of the four,” she muttered. She sighed. “It’s Snape isn’t it? No…no wait, Trent Hemingway?”

Riley and Kay exchanged looks again and shook their heads. “Nope…neither one.”

Lily frowned and gave them both her confused look. “Uh…well those are the only two prefects who I absolutely despise so I think I’m safe with Fabian. I like him actually and if he weren’t such good friends with the Marauders, I would think I’d like him even more.”

“It’s not Fabian, Lily. In fact, the Head Boy wasn’t a prefect,” Riley explained slowly and cautiously.

“ _What_?” Lily cried, glaring at both of them. 

They glanced at each other again and didn’t say anything.

“Okay you guys, stop exchanging looks, stop this act, and just tell me who it is!” Lily demanded, staring down both of them. 

Kay dropped her feet of the seat in front of her and turned to Lily in a serious manner. “Well, Lily…uh…it’s…your Head Boy is…well, it’s James Potter,” she admitted, wincing since she was expecting a loud cursing from Lily with a series of reasons why James Potter shouldn’t be Head Boy, followed by a comment directed at a possibly half-crazed Dumbledore, and then finally a pacing and seething around the compartment.

But Lily did none of that. When Kay opened her eyes and turned to Lily, she seemed calm and nervous.

Finally she simply uttered, “Oh.”

Riley and Kay exchanged a really confused and unconvinced look.

“Uh, Lily?” Kay asked cautiously. “You do realize we just announced that James Potter, the same kid who has ruined your life and tortured you nonstop for the past six years, the one and only guy who never failed to make your day miserable with some sort of wisecrack or witty statement of criticism, the same asshole who has enjoyed making you scream at the top of your lungs just so he and his buddies could high-five each other and throw a party in your honor, the pretentious jackass who has been competing with you in every class since day one here, and the guy who we have deemed a basic phony prat with his group of followers always bowing down to him, was assigned Head Boy....and…and are you really just going to say _oh_ to that?”

Lily paused, averting her eyes from her friends, took a deep breath and responded, “Yeah…oh.”

“Okay who are you and what have you done with Lily?” Riley demanded to know, crossing her arms in bafflement.

Lily rolled her eyes. “Guys, I just…well, never mind. Listen, I’ve got a meeting to run but I should be back soon.”

“Yeah if you or James don’t kill each other by then,” Riley pointed out.

Lily opened her mouth to protest profusely but instead sighed and stated sarcastically, “We won’t kill each other. We may lose a few limbs here and there, but I guess I’ll just have to be willing to take that risk.”

“Well, whatever you say, but don’t say we didn’t warn you,” Riley snickered.

Lily rolled her eyes and argued, “We’re seventeen. I think we can deal with each other without ending up in a duel.”

“Yeah maybe if you two acted maturely around each other but when was the last time one of you didn’t stomp off angrily because the other said something rather heartless and degrading?” Kay pointed out, shrugging in doubt.

Lily sighed. “Well, fine. If I don’t come out of this alive, then please send Artemis to a safe home.”

“Oh definitely. And we’ll make sure that your Head Girl job is replaced by someone suitable, someone not in Slytherin,” Kay agreed.

Lily rolled her eyes. “Well I’m glad you guys have my back,” she said sarcastically, walking out and towards the prefect and Head compartment.

She slowly walked toward the prefect compartment in the front of the train wondering how James would react when he saw her…wondering how she would react when she saw him. She knew things would be different between them; you don’t confess your feelings for someone and share a kiss with someone and then have things go back to normal, but Lily only wished she knew how things would turn out. Thinking about talking to James again just made the memory of them on the platform come rushing back. And the thought of it just made her wonder what it all meant. She knew that she didn’t particularly like James but thinking about everything he said to her made her feel guilty for the way she acted around him. She sighed and went back to thinking about their special moment.

Unfortunately, it was interrupted.

“Oh, look it’s the Mudblood straying from her pack,” a rather giddy voice said from behind her.

Lily rolled her eyes and turned around to be face-to-face with Bellatrix Black. “You know I could just retort with something more low and inhumane but I think I’d rather just give you a detention…or better, take five points off.”

Bellatrix gave her a look. “You can’t take points off.”

“I can do whatever I want… _I’m_ Head Girl.”

Bellatrix’ mouth dropped open as she let out an angry grunt, and shaking her head incredulously. “Well, technically the school year hasn’t started, so you can’t do anything to me.”

Lily nodded. “You’re right. But that doesn’t mean I won’t take points off once we get back to Hogwarts…”

“You wouldn’t fucking dare…you’re little Miss Perfect and you wouldn’t want anything to ruin that.”

“Yeah well I think you’re a bloody bitch, Black, and I’ll do anything I want with you.”

Bellatrix gave her an odd look. “Okay, who the hell are you and what have you done with the Mudblood Evans?”

Lily smirked and turned around, walking away from her, feeling too good about herself to care what Bellatrix said to her.

As Lily was getting closer to the prefects’ compartment, her heart started to beat faster uncontrollably, her stomach full of butterflies, and Lily wasn’t sure why. She wasn’t nervous or even scared to see James; she was more concerned about what he would say or do in her presence. For all she knew, James forgot about their moment on the platform, which she didn’t doubt. But then why did he say all of that stuff to her? If he really did have some sort of crush on her the way he had claimed he did then he wouldn’t have forgotten. Lily didn’t even know how she felt about it. It all happened so fast and right now everything just seemed to be a big blur.

“Hey Lily-bean, how was your summer?”

Lily jumped, forgetting she was on a train surrounded by people. She turned around and saw Sirius standing there coyly, which just made her wonder if James had told him about their kiss. Lily didn’t tell her friends but it seemed that James would be more cocky about it then she would be.

“It was…great,” Lily lied once again, shrugging. “What about you?”

Sirius smiled at her. “It was awesome.”

Lily rolled her eyes. “So how many girls did you sleep with?”

“Now what makes you think I slept with someone?” Sirius asked, feigning shock.

“I don’t think you slept with someone,” Lily argued. “I think you slept with a _lot_ of someones.”

“I’d argue…but it’s true,” Sirius snickered.

“Do I know you or what?” Lily laughed, winking jokingly.

“Almost as good as Gilmore, who, when I met her on the platform, accused me of sleeping around over the summer as well…except I don’t think she meant it to be a joke.”

“Who said I was joking?”

Sirius laughed again. “Man, two in a row. You’re certainly on a roll.”

“Well I’m in a particularly good mood right now,” Lily said with a grin.

“Ohhhh…so I’m not the only one who had sex over the summer now am I?” Sirius teased.

“HEY!” Lily cried laughing as she hit him playfully on the shoulder. “Not quite, Black. I was just going to say that I bitched out your wonderful cousin, Bellatrix, and it felt quite good. I might find myself doing that instead of tearing people apart more often this year.”

Sirius gave her a surprised look. “You bitched out Bellatrix?”

Lily grinned and nodded.

“Hm…okay, but first, who are you and what have you done with my Lily-bean?”

Lily laughed and shook her head incredulously. “Oh my God, what is it with everyone today? You’re the third person who’s asked me that…well, not so much in those words. Bellatrix asked me what happened to the Mudblood Lily, but they’re really along the same lines.”

Sirius wasn’t sure whether to take pity or laugh but seeing that Lily had a wide teasing smile on his face, he figured it would be safe to laugh. But just to make sure, he added, “You know it’s not true right? You shouldn’t listen to her.”

Lily shook her head. “I don’t listen to her.” 

“So how exactly did you bitch my dear cousin out, Lily-bean?” Sirius asked, insanely curious and trying to change the awkward subject.

“Walk with me,” Lily said, glancing at her watch and realizing she was going to be late. Sirius shrugged and agreed. “I told her she was a bitch and I’d do whatever I want with her. This was all after I was stupidly abusing my Head Girl privileges, which meant that-“

“Wait, what?”

Lily laughed. “I know, I know. Lily Evans, Miss Perfect Gryffindor, was abusing her Head Girl rights. I didn’t say I was proud of it but-“

“No, that’s not what I meant,” Sirius disagreed.

Lily gave him a look. “Then what did you mean?”

“You’re Head Girl?” Sirius asked nervously.

Lily cringed, forgetting that James probably didn’t know about her being Head Girl and therefore didn’t tell his friends. “Yeah…and before you sit me down and make me calm before telling me the absolutely horrible news about who’s Head Boy expecting me to lash out and scream obscenities, I already know it’s James Potter.”

Sirius turned to give her a look as they approached the prefect compartment. He glanced in through the glass and saw both James and Remus talking to each other in the corner and shrugged. “Well, do me a favor and don’t bite his head off on the first day. At least wait a week. He’s not used to having a leadership position. In our group, that job’s reserved to me,” he teased.

Lily rolled her eyes. “I don’t plan on biting anyone’s head off. Why is everyone so convinced that either James or I will be dead come Christmas?”

“Because you two hate each-“ Sirius halted and gave her a strange look. “Wait… _what_ did you just say?”

“I don’t plan on biting anyone’s-“

“No, not that. You said…you said _James_.”

“What, didn’t know that was his name?” Lily snickered.

“ _I_ know his name is James. I just didn’t think _you_ did,” Sirius pointed out.

“I’ve lived in the same house as him, took the same classes as him, ate at the same table as him. Damnit, I breathed the same _air_ as him! All of this for the past six years—you’d think I’d know his name by now,” Lily pointed out.

“Huh,” Sirius simply uttered. “You’d _think_ you’d know his name but for the past six years the only name you’ve uttered at him is Potter…well, and a few assholes, prats, Four Eyes, jackasses, morons, pricks and you’ve even thrown in a few jerks from time to time.”

“Do you have a point to this?”

Sirius paused. “Y’know, you think I would.”

Lily threw her hands in the air and rolled her eyes. “You’re unbelievable.” 

Sirius shrugged. “I get that a lot but usually in a different context,” he agreed. “So, since when do you call him James?”

Lily bit her lip nervously and averted her eyes away from Sirius. “Uh…I don’t know. I…uh…I-I figure we’ll be working with each other for the remainder of the year so we might as well be civil and using each other’s surnames seems so childish and not exactly civil.”

“You’re not telling me something,” Sirius stated, smirking and leaning against the doorframe, blocking Lily from entering the room. Lily knew at this point that James clearly hadn't told his friends about what had occurred between them two months earlier and was almost grateful for it. 

Lily rolled her eyes. “Oh really? So tell me, Obe Wan, what makes you think I’m hiding something? And most important, why would I be hiding something?” Lily asked with a superior look on her face, trying so hard not to let her guard down. 

Sirius shrugged. “Don’t you think I’ve known you long enough to know when you’re discretely hiding something?”

Lily snorted. “Oh _please_. You’ve only known of me for _six_ years—when you bothered to find the time—so you can hardly categorize my emotions.”

Sirius was taken aback by her response; she seemed almost angry at him for mentioning it. He shrugged, trying not to be bothered by her words. “Fine…but you and I both know you’re hiding something.”

Lily didn’t answer mostly because she hated him being right. “Whatever, Sirius,” she grinned. “I’ve got a meeting to run knowing that your best friend will probably be of no help whatsoever but I will certainly catch up with you later.”

Sirius smiled. “Okay. Tell Gilmore I think she needs an attitude adjustment.”

“Aww, you don’t want to tell her yourself and see how it feels to be personally shredded apart and fed to the Lake Squid?” Lily teased. 

Sirius shrugged. “Eh, maybe tomorrow I’ll feel like dying but I’m a happy camper today.”

“Happy camper?” Lily repeated humorously, raising an eyebrow in question.

Sirius grinned. “Well I could have said I feel like a fucking athlete cracked up on steroids but I felt I needed to be a bit discrete in front of our dear Head Girl.”

Lily laughed. “What were your parents thinking when they names you Sirius? What, was Jokester taken by another family member?”

“How’d you know that was my uncle’s name??” Sirius joked. 

Lily laughed again, loving the sound of her own laughter. It had been a while since she had laughed so much and she couldn’t help but feel glad that she ran into Sirius before meeting up with James again. He certainly eased the tension and lightened the mood and she was grateful for that. She grinned at him, kissed him impulsively on the cheek and said, “Okay, now I really need to start this meeting. I’m already a little bit late.”

“See you around, Lily-bean,” Sirius grinned. “I’ll tell my Uncle Jokester you say hi.”

Lily laughed and watched him walk away, took a deep breath, and slid open the compartment door to see that not all of the prefects had arrived yet.

She walked over to the head of the table in the room and smiled at Remus, glancing barely at James. “Hey, Remus,” she greeted cheerfully. She turned to look at James and said maturely, “Hey…James.”

James gave her an odd look. “Hey Evans,” he replied, going back to talking to Remus. 

Lily looked at him trying not to show her surprise as she gave him a weak smile and quickly averted her eyes. She bit her lip nervously wondering why James seemed so detached.

Remus noticed Lily’s uneasy habits but tried not to show it. Once James was finished telling him the rest of his story, Remus turned to Lily.

“How was your summer, Lily?” he asked.

Lily shrugged. “Great,” she lied for the third time that day. “How about you?”

Remus hesitated. “Hm…I’m just glad to be back,” he admitted.

Lily nodded. “I couldn’t agree with you more,” she replied. “So I saw Sirius outside and-”

“So I’m guessing you know that I’m Head Boy then?” James quickly interrupted with a smirk on his face. 

Lily rolled her eyes. “Imagine my surprise,” she mumbled.

“I wouldn’t get smart with me. As Head Boy, I do control what you do, y’know,” he snickered haughtily.

Lily was a little taken aback by his attitude, especially after what had happened between them only two months earlier. She thought he would be a little more wary…like she was. And at any other time, she would have dismissed the comment and shrugged. But she was getting a little annoyed by his attitude. 

She crossed her arms with a smirk to match his on her face. “And as Head Girl, I say up yours,” she snapped.

James’ smirk quickly disappeared as he stared at her. “Wait…you’re Head Girl?”

Lily smiled, enjoying the superiority of it. “Can you think of anyone better?”

“Yeah, anyone else in this school…and that includes the house-elves.”

Lily rolled her eyes, really confused at how much James had changed over the summer. Did their kiss mean nothing to him? Not that it meant anything to her, but still. James was acting as if it never even happened between them. He was acting the same way he had two years earlier…when she hated despised him.

Lily glared at him. “I forgot just how egotistical you were,” she said angrily.

“Well I certainly didn’t forget how unbelievably uptight you were,” James snickered. “And thanks for reminding me of it.”

Lily glared at him. “Anything for my coworker,” she replied dryly.

“Can we get this meeting started so I can get away from you sooner?” James snapped back.

“All the prefects aren’t here, smart-ass. But you would know that if you happened to pay attention at all in Hogwarts.”

“I wasn’t a prefect. How the hell am I supposed to know who all the prefects are?” James scowled.

“It’s common knowledge who the prefects are, Potter,” she snarled. “You’re just too busy hexing innocent people and cavorting around this school like you own it to care.”

“I don’t _cavort_ ,” he argued.

“You most certainly _do_ cavort; ask anyone.”

“Remus, do I cavort?”

“Er…well…cavort is such…er…it’s such a _strong_ word,” Remus replied unsteadily. “I mean, you may perhaps uh…well, you maybe do a lesser version of cavorting, like…uh…well, you-“

“The word you’re looking for is _cavort_ ,” Lily interjected. 

James glared at her. “Well so what if I cavort? I’d rather cavort then walk around with my nose in the air as if I was the Queen of the world—which, by the way, you’re _not_.”

“I’m closer to Queen than you are King.”

“I wouldn’t want to be King—those thrones do _not_ look comfortable and I couldn’t imagine having to wear a crown; my hair would not cooperate with that.”

“Your hair doesn’t cooperate with _anything_!”

“Uh…guys?” Remus interrupted quickly.

“ _What_!?” they both cried, glaring at him for interrupting their argument.

Remus jumped back. “I just wanted to point out that everyone’s here now…and you two aren’t being good role models like you’re supposed to be.”

Lily rolled her eyes and looked around the room, blushing at the sight of all of the prefects now staring up at her and James. She sighed. This was not going well.

“Are you telling me that this son-of-a-mother-fucking-bitch is Head Boy?” Severus said in shock, glaring at James.

James grinned. “I wouldn’t be calling me a son-of-a-mother-fucking-bitch if I were you, Snivellus. I could easily take off points.”

Lily glared at him. “I should have known that you would abuse your privileges,” Lily snapped, trying to ignore the voice in her head that said she had earlier abused those privileges with Bellatrix. She shook the thought and went back to insulting James. “And he doesn’t have to call you a son-of-a-mother-fucking bitch because I will and I could easily just get you back for whatever you have in store for me.”

James obviously had nothing to come back with. He just glared at her and cried out. “AARRGH! Damnit, I can’t believe I ever liked—well, never mind. Let’s get this started so I can get back to hanging out with my friends.”

Lily was really curious about what he was going to say, along with everyone, but she shook it out of mind and muttered, “Fine by me.”

With one last furtive glance up at James, Lily sighed and got started on conducting the meeting, with the occasional witty quip from James to which she quickly put down. She refused to let James get to her and she wouldn’t tolerate being humiliated in front of her peers.

By the end of the meeting, all of the prefects were glad to be getting away. The arguing between James and Lily was getting excessive and even Remus had had enough. When Lily finally ended it, even she was happy to be getting away from it all. For many reasons.

She forced everyone out, yelled at James for being an incompetent partner, and then pushed him out as well claiming she’d organize everything for their meeting with Dumbledore that they were having that evening. James argued at first refusing Lily to gain Dumbledore’s full trust without him but Lily promised him that if he left she’d give him half-credit. She swore on her mother’s life that if she went back on that promise that she would personally resign from her Head Girl position…which was when James knew she was being honest. (She just chose to keep out the fact that her mother was already dead) 

Lily just needed to get away from James. She needed time to think. Time to reflect on what the hell had just happened between her and James.

When James had shut the door behind him, Lily immediately sunk into the chair at the head of the table and rested her head on her arms dejectedly. She never imagined that James could be so cold after what he had said to her on the platform. She was utterly confused at his nonchalance and just wished that things could go back before their moment on the platform. That he had never admitted his feelings for her. That he never kissed her.

She groaned so loud that she didn’t hear the compartment door slide open.

“Lily?”

Lily literally jumped a mile. “HOLY SHIT!” she screamed. She turned around and sighed. “Hey, Remus. What are you doing back here?”

“One, something’s up with you. Two, I forgot my bag.”

“Well let’s skip over one, you get to two, and we’ll call it a day,” Lily said with an innocent grin.

Remus took a seat. “Or we could just get right to one,” he said firmly. “What’s up with you? You were acting rather shifty today in the meeting and refused to let James get in a word or two. I thought you guys were becoming closer to acquaintances than enemies.”

“Well, things change,” Lily said, subtly looking away. “We had two months apart. Obviously we realized we make a better pair of enemies than we do acquaintances.”

Remus gave her a look. “I’m just so surprised at the way you two were acting around each other today. I think I speak for everyone when I say it certainly made Hogwarts easier without having to hear a rather heated debate between you and James every morning in the Great Hall, every day in classes, and every night in the commons room.”

“Remus, this isn’t my fault,” Lily snapped crossly, looking up at him in distress. “I came in here with a nice attitude. When I found out Ja—Potter was Head Boy I may have been surprised but I wasn’t _angry_. He just happened to make me extremely short-tempered and I don’t do well with people like that. So don’t come in here and blame this whole thing on me, ‘kay?”

“I wasn’t blaming anything on anyone, I was just-“

“Leaving?” Lily suggested, standing up and gathering her things. She wasn’t in the mood to talk about this any longer especially with someone who was so obviously on James’ side considering he was one of James’ best friends.

Remus frowned. “Lily, I-“

Lily gave him a distraught look and sighed. “I don’t want to hear it, Remus,” she interrupted. 

She grabbed her bag and with one last glance at Remus, she walked out of the room feeling extraordinarily annoyed with everyone at that moment. All she wanted to do was get to Hogwarts, get through the Sorting Ceremony, have the meeting with Dumbledore, get settled into her private quarters, and crawl into bed.

But of course life just couldn’t be that easy.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

“UGH! How could I not have realized that she would be Head Girl?” James was complaining later in the Great Hall at the Sorting Ceremony. “I mean the first thing that should have come to my mind when I was offered the Head Boy position was a red light stopping me immediately from being happy for me and thinking straight about who would be getting the Head Girl position….because duh Evans would be offered Head Girl??? Who else around here studies so hard that they’ll probably get some sort of aneurism??”

“You realize you have been complaining about this for the past few hours, right?” Peter murmured.

“Well I can’t help it if Evans is always getting in my way!”

Sirius sighed. “I thought you were over her, Prongs.”

James stopped talking long enough to stare at him in complete confusion. “What? What does that have to do with anything?”

“You’ve been talking nonstop about her for the past few hours,” Remus added. “I’d say that has a lot to do with it.”

James gave them an irritated look and snorted. “Oh please. Lily Evans is so far from my mind,” he whispered back as Dumbledore stood up to begin the Sorting Ceremony.

“And yet her name come out of your mouth every five seconds,” Peter snickered.

James glared at him.

Peter simply shrugged casually. 

James sat in silence for the rest of the Sorting Ceremony and dinner, with only a few awkward glances towards where Lily was sitting, with only one thing on his mind. 

His whole summer was devoted to getting over Lily. He was tired of waiting around for her when he knew his fantasies would never work out in the end. But every time he tired thinking of something else, the kiss they shared would come back to haunt him. Well at least that’s what he tried telling himself. In actuality, it was one hell of a kiss; one that he certainly will never forget. He thought he would regret doing it but nothing about it had made him regretful. He could remember everything about that moment. The way she looked, the way the smelled, the way the sun streaked her hair just right, the way she didn’t pull away when he leaned in, the way she called after him when he walked away. For the whole summer, he tried to get all of those images out of his mind.

But every time he tried thinking about anything else, something in the back of his mind would creep up. He couldn’t help but wonder why Lily hadn’t turned away from him when he kissed her. Why she didn’t pull back or slap him like he expected. And when she walked into the prefect compartment that morning, she seemed almost calm and even welcoming. He groaned inwardly and tried to focus on the Sorting Ceremony.

He thought he did a pretty good job about keeping Lily far from his mind over the summer. But seeing her standing before him earlier that morning just made that moment come flashing back to him. And he didn’t want it too. He had moved on to someone else and that’s the way he wanted to keep it. He knew he’d have to go back to the way things were if he wanted to stay clear of her. 

He just didn’t realize how hard that would be.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

The meeting with Dumbledore was absolutely unbearable and horrendous. Lily and James couldn’t stop bickering with each other and obviously Dumbledore was having second thoughts on choosing them to work with each other. They ended up wasting fifteen minutes of Dumbledore’s time debating about whether a ball for the 1025th Anniversary was necessary, which turned up in James’ favor in the end much to Lily’s dismay. 

When they were eventually dismissed, Lily quickly fled out of the room and up to the Gryffindor commons room before heading back to her private quarters to eventually sleep a soundless night.

She stomped into the commons room and saw Kay lying out by the fireplace, assuming that because the place was packed, there were no couches left when Kay had walked downstairs, reading the latest _Witches Weekly_ magazine.

“Hey, Kay. Where’s Riley?” she asked, leaning against the fireplace bricks in front of Kay.

“The last time I heard of her, she was making out with Fabrice in the Astronomy Tower,” she smirked, not even looking up from her magazine.

Lily laughed. “Of course. Who else would choose not even a few hours after we arrive to hook up with someone?”

Kay laughed but before she could reply with her usual witty retort, in walked Riley who naturally bumped right into Sirius, who was obviously walking out. Kay and Lily amusingly watched them interact, both wondering in the back of their mind why they seemed to all-of-a-sudden hate each other.

“Well, lookie here,” Sirius said with a toothless grin. “Look what Satan dragged in from hell.”

“Yes, that’s so funny, Black, I feel like putting myself out and rolling on the floor in hysterical laughter,” Riley said dryly.

“Well, don’t let me stop you, babes.”

“Must you always refer to me as ‘babes?’ I personally like the unoriginal Gilmore better…or no name at all would be the best decision.”

“Yes, but then I’d be doing what you want, and I’ve learned never to give in to a lady’s temptations.”

“No, you just do what you want,” Riley snorted. “Which more often than not consists of locking yourself in your room and moaning so loudly the commons room has to empty out, so not giving into a lady’s temptation is a load of bullshit.”

Sirius chuckled. “Yes, I do love those days.”

“And you seem to love a lot of girls as well.”

“Jealous, are we?” Sirius teased, winking at her.

Riley glared at him. “Don’t make me pull my wand out.”

Sirius snickered. “It’d be pretty interesting to see who’d win a dual between us.”

“I don’t need to see it because I already know that I would, Black.”

“So prove it, Honeybunch.”

Riley slapped him on the back of the head.

“HEY!” Sirius cried, stumbling forward a bit. “That’s not using your wand!”

“Yeah, but it was using my head…and yours too, actually,” Riley snickered.

Sirius glared at her. “You are such a conniving bit-“

“Bitch?” Riley finished. “Yeah, I get that a lot.”

“Maybe because it’s true, babes.”

She shrugged. “Yeah, well it’s not the worst thing I’ve been called, and stop calling me ‘babes.’”

“I’m not so sure you should be proud of being a bitch, Gilmore.”

Riley rolled her eyes. “With you around, there’s not much to be proud of.”

“Are you calling me shameful?”

“If the shoe fits,” Riley smirked, shrugging.

“I’d rather be shameful than a stubborn, uptight whore like yourself.”

“You’re calling _me_ a whore!?” Riley cried out in disbelief. “Why don’t you look around at the rest of the girls at this goddamned school before you start accusing me of the type of girl you enjoy seducing!?”

“You know nothing about my personal life, babes, so fuck off.”

“Stop calling me that!!! And I’ve _been_ there, Black, so don’t tell me I know nothing about your fuckin’ personal life! Besides, anyone who is the commons room with you upstairs knows plenty about your personal life, Black. You must either be deaf or you simply just enjoy disturbing the rest of us.” 

“Well, I wouldn’t want to inconvenience the rest of you, now would I?”

“I’m surprised you know the tactic of using sarcasm instead of your frequent usage of dry humor and irrational nonsense.”

Sirius couldn’t help but laugh. “Y’know, I always liked you. I just don’t know why we got off on the wrong foot.”

“You know perfectly well why we can’t stand each other now so don’t go trying to redeem yourself now. Besides, in the past year or so, I learned to hate you with your petty interruptions during class, your obvious seduction skills in the hallways, and your domineering-“

“Good looks?”

“I was going for unintelligence, but _so_ close,” Riley murmured. “Now if you don’t mind, I was looking to chat with my friends today and it seems that all I’ve been doing for the past couple of minutes or so is talk to my enemy.”

“I like to think of us as more as rivaling arch-nemesis from the same background than enemies.”

“Well fine, rivaling arch-nemesis of mine, I’ll hopefully not see you later,” Riley replied wryly, pushing him aside and strolling over to her friends.

She conjured up a pillow and lay her head down on it. “Hey guys. How’d the meeting with Dumbledore go?”

Lily smirked. “That depends; how did the meeting with Fabrice go?”

Riley glared at Kay. “You told her?”

Kay laughed. “Of course I did. The more guys you hook up, the more money I win.”

“What? You’re betting money on me!?”

“Well just with Remus.”

“WHAT!?” Riley screamed.

Kay laughed and threw her magazine at Riley. “You are _too_ gullible.”

Riley glared at her and chose to keep the magazine. “Now you’ll never know what happened between Madonna and her latest love affair.”

Kay rolled her eyes. “Like that’s the important issue in life right now.”

Riley stuck out her tongue at her immaturely as Lily watched them humorously.

“Back to Lily,” Riley grumbled. “So really, how did the meeting with Dumbledore go?”

Lily shrugged and made a face. “Well Dumbledore wasn’t exactly the problem.”

“Bozo the Clown again?” Kay snickered.

“Who else,” Lily muttered angrily. “He’s already driving me crazy and we haven’t even been here for twenty-four hours. I know I said before we were mature and we could handle each other, but I lied. I definitely see myself killing him by the end of the week.”

“Oh, but honey, I don’t think you have time to break in a new enemy,” Riley teased.

Lily glared at her, trying not to show her amusement.

“Don’t look at me like that,” she replied, lifting her head from the pillow. “You know you’re amused.”

Lily scowled. “What happened to supportive best friends?”

Riley shrugged. “It’s just so much more fun being cynical and ridiculing.”

Kay laughed. “So true.”

“Well I was going to invite you guys to come see my private quarters but seeing as I only see cynical and ridiculing friends around here, I’ll have to go out in search of my best friends to take with me.”

Kay and Riley exchanged looks. “But you know, cynicism and ridicule is _sooo_ last year,” Riley protested. 

“Yeah, we’d much rather be supportive and understanding,” Kay added.

“Yeah, yeah!” Riley continued. “Potter sucks. He’s bad. He…he never studies. And he’s always pranking and…and...and…”

“And…and he smells?” Kay suggested teasingly.

They all laughed and stood up, following Lily to her special Head Girl room. Unfortunately when they got there they were in for a rude awakening. The Marauders, Rachael LeBlanc, a sixth-year Gryffindor prefect, and a seventh-year Ravenclaw by the name of Kristina Reinhart were already sitting in the commons room.

James groaned. “I was really hoping you’d stay in the dorm with your friends tonight.”

“And I was really hoping you’d jump off a building into a pit of fire-breathing dragons and die a slow and painful death but it’s obvious that we can't always get what we want,” Lily shot back.

Riley and Kay smirked. 

“Something funny, Gilmore?” Sirius asked sincerely.

“You mean besides the fact that your nose is too big for your face, your hair sticks up endlessly, and your wit is ridiculously immature?”

“Guys, guys, can’t we just all be friends?” James smirked, giving Lily a deathly stare at the time.

“Well you know what they say: with friends like you, who needs enemies?” Lily scowled.

Kristina Reinhart gave James an odd look. “So am I right in assuming that nothing will get done this year considering the Head Boy and Head Girl can hardly speak to each other without sending daggered glares at each other?”

Lily snorted and gave Kristina a rather irritated look. “I am a perfectly good candidate as Head Girl. It’s not my fault that Dumbledore felt the need to give me this asshole to work with.”

Kristina rolled her eyes. “And I’m sure James feels the same so you don’t have to act biased.”

“Of course I can act biased!” Lily quickly retaliated. “He wasn’t a prefect! I’ve been working my ass off for the past six years to get where I am today. Potter has been fooling around with the company of his pranks for the past six years and yet now I am stuck working with that!? So don’t tell me how I can act because I will act as biased as I want to!”

Kristina snickered. “No need to act defensive.”

“Defensive?” Lily repeated angrily, her nostrils flaring and her head ready to explode. “Defensive!? I’m not acting defensive. I’m just telling you how it is!”

Everyone else in the room exchanged worried glances; they all knew the signs of a major blow-up from Lily and she was definitely on her way there, surprisingly with someone whose name was not James Potter. This type of temper-tantrums was a rare occurrence. 

“Just because your jealous of his natural intelligence doesn’t mean that-“

“ _What_!?” Lily screamed. “Who the hell are you to tell me that I feel jealous about that screwed-up mental case, when there’s clearly nothing to be jealous of!”

“You know, I _am_ in the room,” James dared to speak up.

“Oh fuck off,” Lily cried irately, obviously taking all of her rage out on him. She turned to her friends, hyperventilating from her bottled up anger. “C’mon. Let’s hang out in my room before I feel the need to kill someone…and surprisingly, for once, it’s _not_ Potter,” she said vehemently staring at Kristina with a very stony, deadly look on her face.

She grabbed Riley and Kay’s arms and practically forced them into her room, flopping on to her bed as she let out a loud grunt. “UGH! That bitch was getting on my last nerve!”

“Oh really? I hadn’t noticed,” Kay teased.

Lily lifted her head from her pillow and glared at her. “Not funny.”

“Well you’re going to be seeing a lot of her around,” Riley mumbled.

“What? Why?” Lily asked quickly.

“Lily, what is it with you and hating people immediately?” Riley asked, changing the subject. “Kristina is actually not that bad.”

“Whose side are you on anyway?” Lily grumbled.

Riley opened her mouth to protest but was interrupted by a knock from the door.

Lily slowly slid off her bed and trudged to the door, seriously hoping it was Remus or Sirius or someone else that she could deal with at the moment.

But apparently it just wasn’t her day.

Lily opened the door and groaned at the sight of James in her doorway. “Can I help you?” Lily muttered through gritted teeth.

“What the hell was that?” he demanded to know.

“What?” Lily smirked innocently, giving him a humorous grin.

“You can’t just bitch out my friends any time you’d like, Evans,” he protested angrily.

“I’ll bitch out anyone I want to, Potter, and there’s really nothing you can do about it, so now I think it’s time for you to go,” Lily argued, ready to slam the door in his face.

“No,” James said, putting his foot in the door. “You had _no_ right yelling at her the way you did.”

“It’s not my fault that she’s a crazy, uptight bimbo who started superficially making assumptions about me! Why the hell you’re hanging out with her is beyond me!”

“Hey!” James yelled rather defensively, pointing his finger at her. “Don’t you _dare_ call her a bimbo. I won’t have you talking about my girlfriend that way.”

Lily stopped in her tracks, staring up at him in shock. “Uh…what?”

“She’s my girlfriend,” James said nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders like it was nothing. “I’ve been dating her for three weeks now.”

“Oh,” Lily said, trying to figure out how she felt about that. She shook any odd feelings out of her head and continued, “Well in that case, she’s a crazy, uptight, brainless bimbo to be going out with a jackass like _you_.” 

And with that, she slammed the door in his face and stalked back to her bed.

Riley and Kay exchanged glances. “So…uh…Lily, how’s Potter?” Riley snickered.

Lily threw her pillow at her. “Why didn’t you tell me they were dating?”

Riley cracked up. “Oh yeah because _that_ would have stopped you from insulting her?”

Lily sighed. That wasn’t exactly what she meant but she really didn’t feel like explaining why she suddenly felt small and insignificant. She had tried telling Kay and Riley about the kiss that she and James had shared on the platform so many times but she didn’t exactly know how to tell them; so every time she opened her mouth to tell them, her mind was sending her road blocks.

“Man this room is gorgeous. If I were you, I’d never leave,” Kay said, successfully changing the subject.

Lily shook the thought of James and Kristina out of her mind and smiled. “Nah, don’t worry; I’ll still visit you guys. And my bed is still in the seventh-year dorm so naturally I will be sleeping in that room more often that not.”

Riley groaned. “Oh do you have to? You always make us get up too early.”

Lily threw another pillow at her, and Riley threw them both back, resulting in a full-out pillow war.

But Lily still couldn’t get the image of James and her on the platform out of her mind.

&&&&&&&& 

  **A/N:** Damn Potter.  



	5. Of Alarm Clocks, Partners, & Pigs

**A/N:** I wrote this before the 5th book came out, so I didn't know how seventh-year classes workes and therefore, my version of taking classes is a little different than J.K. Rowling's. And that's why this is slightly AU. 

 

**Tears on the Balcony**

By ByeByeBirdie

Chapter 5: Of Alarm Clocks, Partners, and Pigs

 

The next morning, Lily skillfully avoided James at all costs. She absolutely hated how much James got to her. He irritated her in many ways that she couldn’t even describe. It’s not even always the big problems; she often gets bothered by the little things he does, like saying things that could be hurtful or the way he always seems to get away with everything. He always takes the easy way out and Lily hates knowing that he barely worked for his Head Boy badge. He just crams it all into his measly little brain, and yet he always seems to remember everything he hears. And the fact that she had to work for six years straight to earn her title made it all that much harder to accept him as Head Boy.

She watched out for him, waiting for him to leave for breakfast, and waited ten minutes before walking to the Gryffindor house to find both of her friends sound asleep. Because Lily didn’t really feel like getting a beat-down that morning, she set their alarm clocks and silently slipped out of there, walking to the Great Hall on her own.

In the Great Hall, she sat down on the other end of the table saving two seats for Riley and Kay and took out the latest _Daily Prophet_ to keep her mind off of James.

With only fifteen minutes left of breakfast, Riley and Kay finally stumbled grumpily into the Great Hall.

Kay glared at Lily when she sat down. “Tell me one reason why I shouldn’t pour this whole pitcher of pumpkin juice in your lap?”

Lily was taken aback by that. “What? What did I do?”

“You didn’t wake me up this morning like you said you would last night! You always wake me up on the first day of classes. I always bitch you out for the rest of the day because of the new profound way you had found to wake me up in the morning and now not only am I going to be dirty for the rest of the day because I haven’t had time to take a shower, but now I’m going to also be grumpy and have no one to blame it on. Why must you break our annual routine?” Kay grumbled sitting beside Lily.

“But I went in this morning and set a clock!”

“Yes, but see, the clock stops beeping loudly once I throw it against the wall giving me plenty of time to fall back to sleep. You, however, never stop yapping no matter how hard I throw you, thus insuring the wake up process,” Kay replied matter-of-factly.

“Uh…would you like me to wake you up tomorrow?” Lily asked sheepishly.

“Well…now it just seems foolish,” Kay mumbled.

“Oh, no, I assure you that it has been foolish all these years,” Riley snickered.

Kay glared at her. “I wouldn’t insult the girl with the pitcher of pumpkin juice in her hands if I were you.”

Riley laughed. “Point taken.”

“Ugh, I better have a free block today. I need a nap,” Kay grumbled.

“Speaking of, shouldn’t you be handing out timetables?” Riley asked.

Lily rolled her eyes. “I already did. But some people weren’t here when they were being given out,” she teased. She grabbed them from inside her bag and handed them to Riley and Kay. “Here. And I’m warning you ahead of time, you’re not going to like what class we have first but-”

“History of Magic! At 8:30 in the morning!? What the hell was Dumbledore thinking?” Kay screeched. “We’re seventh-years! Shouldn’t we get the privilege of picking the order of our classes? And bloody Merlin, we have it with the goddamned Slytherins! I’m seriously thinking that Dumbledore has gone completely insane! This is like…like…child abuse! He’s out to ruin my life…” she groaned uncontrollably.

“Oh yeah, Kay,” Riley smirked. “When Dumbledore was making the timetables, his exact thoughts were ‘Hm…how can I make Kay Richards’ seventh-year an absolute nightmare?'” 

Kay glared at her. “I’m still holding the pumpkin juice pitcher.”

“Who said I was being sarcastic?” Riley teased.

“Hello, ladies,” Sirius greeted with a phony grin on his face.

Riley turned to Kay. “I’ve figured out who you can throw that pumpkin juice at.”

“What? All I say is ‘hello ladies’ and the next thing I know you’re plotting to throw a pitcher of pumpkin juice in my face?” Sirius complained.

“Ohh, you’re right,” she responded with a frown on her face. She turned back to Kay. “Throw in a pitcher of coffee too.”

"Eww, coffee stains," Sirius whined. "I don't want to have to walk all the way back to the Gryffindor Tower to change."

"Oh I'm sorry, am I supposed to care?" Riley sneered. 

“Well I can certainly feel the love around here,” Sirius grumbled as he walked down to the other side of the table to join the rest of the Marauders, plopping himself besides James with an irritated groan. “Tell me again how we’ve managed to live with those high-maintenance prisses for the past six years and haven’t felt the need to hang ourselves?”

Remus shrugged, stifling a yawn. “I get along with them fine. It’s just you and Prongs who can’t deal with them.”

“I can deal with Lily and Kay. It’s Gilmore that I have trouble grasping the whole friendship concept around,” Sirius grumbled, grabbing a muffin and biting into it heatedly.

“Yeah and why’s that again?” James asked, stuffing a scone in his mouth.

Sirius glared at him. “Don’t make me throw this muffin at you.”

James shrugged. “Just a simple question.”

“That could result in you being thrown into a lion’s den,” Sirius growled.

“Where are you going to find a lion’s den around here??” Remus snorted.

“I’m a wizard. I’ll create one.”

“He’s got a point,” Peter chimed in with a snicker.

“And you could always transfigure the Slytherins into lions,” James added. “I’m sure no one would mind if they were out of the picture.”

“But I’m sure you’d mine if they were chasing you around the school roaring loudly and clawing you into little pieces,” Remus laughed.

James shrugged. “They’ll have a hard time doing that once I put a high gate around them.”

They all laughed, glancing towards the Slytherins and diving into creating a welcome-back prank for them. 

&&&&&&&&&&

Lily went through the whole day ignoring and avoiding James. She didn’t know how to react around him anymore. She thought she had learned to deal with him, especially after what had happened two months earlier, but it seemed that James didn’t care anymore. As if he had completely forgotten about it; almost as if someone put a memory charm on him. It hurt Lily to think that he may have done that. It’s not as if she cared about James but she thought that they would be able to work with each other.

Apparently as Lily was getting used to the idea of perhaps being friendly with James, James was getting used to the idea of being hated by Lily.

Come Advanced Transfiguration, the last class of the day for them all, all she wanted to do was go back to the Gryffindor commons room and relax with her friends. 

Lily sauntered into the room where Professor McGonagall was sitting at her desk with a strict look on her face and saw Riley sitting in the front with her head on the table. Kay hadn’t taken Advanced Transfiguration so lucky for her, she had a free block this period.

When the bell rang and only Remus was in sight, Lily thought she was completely home-free of her favorite enemy, as did Riley, but naturally, Sirius and James leisurely strolled in seconds later, laughing and hardly caring that they were a few seconds late.

“Are you boys here to chat or to learn?” Professor McGonagall asked the boys firmly.

Sirius grinned and placed his books on an empty desk behind Remus in the back of the room, who was giving them a wary look. “Well if I had known chatting was an option, then-“

“I advise you not to finish that sentence and take a seat.”

“Yes Minnie,” he grinned.

She gave him a stern look.

“I mean, Professor McGonagall,” he smirked, rolling his eyes.

“How the hell that moron is still attending Hogwarts is beyond me,” Riley muttered under her breath. “I didn’t realize that sleeping with every thing with even the tiniest bit of estrogen inside was a prerequisite for moving on to the next grade.”

Lily stifled a laugh, earning a deathly stare from Professor McGonagall.

“Welcome to Advanced Transfiguration,” she started. “This class won’t be easy and you certainly won’t pass unless you read and do all of the work. Every paper I assign, I expect everyone to get high marks. Every exam I give, I expect you all to study hard and get O’s. I expect everyone to get along with everyone else and I will not tolerate any fights, arguments, or debates to waste my time. You might all think I’m just laying it down thick so we won’t get off on the wrong foot, but this is how it will be done.”

“Does this mean I actually have to do work?” James whined softly, causing Remus and Sirius to snicker.

Twenty minutes later, she finished explaining the provisions of the course and had moved on to talking about in-class labs and out-of-class projects. The moment the word ‘partners’ flew out of her mouth, the whole class was immediately paying attention. When that word was uttered it could either mean success, as in choosing your own partner, or complete failure, which usually erupted when the professor was out to get you and partnered you with a complete lunatic.

“If we pick our own partners, I call Remus,” Sirius hissed. 

“No!” James whispered back in frustration. “You always get him! It’s my turn!”

“But I called him first! That’s standard procedure!” Sirius whined.

"Don't I get a say in this?" Remus asked.

"Shh, stay out of this," James argued, giving Remus an irritated look before turning back to glare at Sirius.  "You'll have to fight me for him, Sirius!"

"Well then bring it on, because I'd win!"

"Oh I'm sorry, but _who's_ Head Boy?" James hissed.   


“I hate being the smart one in this group,” Remus muttered.  
  
“He’s mine!”  
  
“Mine!"  
  
Remus sighed. “I knew I should have befriended Lily and Riley back in first year instead of these morons,” he muttered to no one in particular.

“Rock-paper-scissors for him?” Sirius whispered.

James groaned. “Why does it always come down to this?”

“Because it works…and it adds a little fun,” Sirius snickered.

“Seriously, this is ridiculous. Shouldn't I get a say in who gets to be my partner?” Remus asked.

"No,” they both chorused. “Rock…paper…scissors… _shoot_.”

Sirius groaned when James whipped out scissors against his paper. “Best out of 3?” he suggested.  


James grinned and leaned back in his chair. “No way.”

“As many of you are probably wondering, I have already chosen the partners for lab and projects mostly because it is important to be assigned to someone with your intelligence level.”

“Oh thank God,” Remus muttered, as the rest of the class groaned immediately. This didn’t sound good.

Lily already hated this. If she was Head Girl and James was Head Boy, McGonagall was bound to put them together. Thank god they switch partners halfway through the year…

James was thinking the same thing and he couldn’t help glaring at the back of Lily's head in aggravation.  


And not only were _they_ surprised, but everyone in the room was exceptionally shocked when James and Lily were actually _not_ partnered together.

But James and Lily were the only ones celebrating inside.

Lily was partnered with Remus, which she could easily deal with (and laughed when Remus shouted out “Yes!” for everyone to hear), and James was partnered with, lucky for him, Kristina Reinhart. They were certainly happy about that.

“So are we all correct in assuming that no work will be getting done between you two?” Sirius snickered at James, not paying attention to McGonagall at all.

“Sometimes sex is work,” James teased.

“Who you having sex with?” Sirius snickered. 

“And our last partnership,” she continued, “Is Sirius Black and Riley Gilmore.”

“ _WHAT_!?” both cried out, Sirius definitely paying close attention now.

Everyone in the room laughed at their outburst, excluding a very horrified and shocked Riley and Sirius.

“Lily, my life is over,” she mumbled, slumping down in her chair. “Just kill me now and put me out of my misery.”

“Well, okay, but when your parents ask me why I did it, I will tell them you forced me.”

Riley glared at her. “What happened to being supportive?”

“Well I heard that being cynical and ridiculing was in this year,” Lily snickered.

“Do you remember everything I say?”

“No. Usually I just don’t listen at all.” 

“And all this time I thought it was Black I hated,” Riley teased. “ARGH! How the hell am I supposed to work with…with…with _that_.” She pointed to Sirius who had just leaned too far back in his chair and had fallen over.

Lily couldn't help but laugh at the sight of Sirius crawling off the floor with a sheepish grin as McGonagall glared at him for creating a disruption. “Well, you two used to be friends. I’m sure you’ll be able to get through this.”

Riley glared at her. “We _used_ to be friends. But if you hadn’t noticed—and I certainly hoped you had or else you really have been living in a box behind the Queen’s palace for the past year and half—Black and I despise each other! We can hardly be in the same room together without one of us hexing each other to pieces!”

“Oh I’ve noticed but you have yet to inform me why the sudden hatred for him so I have chose to ignore it,” Lily explained. “And until you tell me what the hell happened between you two, I’m going with the obvious ‘suck it up and deal.’”

Riley growled. “You’re supposed to be on my side.”

“At least it’s only half a year,” Lily shot back. “I have to work with Potter for the whole year. Be happy you’re not in _my_ shoes!”

At any other time, Riley would have come back with a great retort but at that point, she was too angry and frustrated to even care.

“Now get together with your partners, learn what you need to know about each other, and we will get started on reviewing last year’s important chapters.”

Riley refused to budge. She sat there waiting for Sirius to come to her, glaring at him the whole time.

Sirius wasn't about to back down either but when Lily literally kicked him out of his chair which was beside Remus, he grumbled and eventually caved. He slowly inched his was over to her table in aggravation, slumping into Lily's previous seat. He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could get the words out, Riley held up her hand to stop him and glared heatedly at him declaring angrily at a quick pace, “Don’t talk to me for the rest of the class period and maybe, _maybe_ I’ll think about sparing you your life.”

Sirius slammed his textbook down on the table. “This is no picnic for me either, _Princess,_ but don’t think that you can control me. I’m the man around here so if anyone will be controlling things, it will be me.”

Riley looked all around her cautiously to make sure no one was listening and whispered bitterly at him, avoiding eye-contact, “No, I think you lost that right after what you did to me two years ago.”

Sirius turned to her speechless. That was the first time either one of them had brought that up since it had happened. He really thought that they both were on the same page: in denial basically but it seemed that Riley obviously remembered it and wasn’t willing to exploit him.

He sighed, uncertain what to say. “Look, Gilmore-“

“You know what, Black? I don’t want to hear it. I’m sorry I brought it up,” she muttered, slumping down in her chair embarrassingly, wondering what possessed her to mention it.

“You’re not sorry or you wouldn’t have done it, Gilmore,” he responded gently, cautiously making sure no one was watching them.

Sirius sighed again when he saw the flicker of disappointment in her eyes turn back to full-fledged hatred, the look that he was so often used to by now.

“Listen, we’ve got a lesson to do so why don’t we just get on with that?” she exclaimed in frustration.

Sirius hesitated. “Fine, but meet me tonight in the Astronomy Tower.”

Riley snorted and gave him a look of disinterest. “Why? A repeat of last time?” she smirked, rolling her eyes, not intending it to be humorous.

Sirius gave her a look telling her to shut up. “No, I just want to talk to you and it’s the only place that I can think of where our friends won’t feel the need to interrupt us.”

Riley rolled her eyes and glared at him. “I think you and I both know that I am _not_ meeting you in the Astronomy Tower so why don’t we just get back to what we’re supposed to be doing,” she responded, trying not to show her curious side getting the better of her. _Why does he want to meet me_ there _, of all places??_

“Riley,” he uttered, feeling awkward saying her first name, “I’d really like to talk to you.”

“Yeah well I’d really like to throw you off the highest point here at Hogwarts but obviously _that_ won’t be happening. Now let’s get back to work,” she said firmly, opening up her text book and ignoring the pleading look that Sirius was giving her right then.

But somehow Riley just couldn’t focus for the rest of the period. Although, she was curiously interested in what Sirius had to say to her, she knew it wasn’t worth it. Nothing good would come out of it and she refused to let him see her vulnerable again.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Riley stomped angrily through the hallways up to her house, stomped all the way through the commons room grumbling obscenities under her breath, and stomped up the stairs to her room where she could scream without anyone thinking she was a dying cat.

Lily walked over to Kay who was sitting on one of the loveseats in the commons room. “Hey, how was free block?”

Kay shrugged. “Boring. You’d think relaxing would be more comforting but after about ten minutes of alone time, I couldn’t help but wonder when you guys would be back in order to entertain moi.”

Lily laughed, dropped her books on the floor and lay down on the couch. 

“So why did Riley seem so riled up—I know, bad pun—when she came stomping through here?”

Lily cringed. “She got Sirius as her partner in Advanced Transfiguration.”

Kay winced and put down the book in her hand. “Uh-oh. That’s a tornado just waiting to happen.”

Lily nodded. “Yeah I know. I just wish I knew why the hell she hates him so much. She used to be such good friends with him and then Christmas break ends our fifth-year, and it was almost as if they both did a complete 180.”

Kay nodded in agreement. “I know. I’ve tried to get it out of her so many times but she refuses to budge.” 

Lily shrugged. “She’ll tell us eventually.”

“Yeah,” Kay agreed. “So did you get as much work as I did on your first day?”

Lily groaned. “I think the professors have all gotten together and decided what the quickest way to ruining our lives is. And through constant schoolwork I think they have found it.”

Kay laughed. “Oh please! You never had a problem doing schoolwork. Every year you manage to do all the work a week before it’s due and then finish up extra-credit work that you don’t even need to do!”

Lily gave Kay a look. “Yeah, but this year I’m Head Girl. I have so much more to manage than just schoolwork.”

“Well then maybe you’ll just have to drop the extra-credit work,” Kay teased.

Lily made a face at her..

At that time, Sirius, Remus, and James walked into the room whispering profusely about something.

“Uh-oh,” Kay muttered. “The Marauders are up to something.”

Lily gave her a questioning look. “What makes you say that?”

“Because they’re whispering,” Kay explained. “When they whisper, they don’t want other people to know what they’re up to. Normally, they’re practically screaming at each other even when they’re five inches from each other.”

“Hm…good point,” Lily snickered. “Oy, Remus!”

“What are you doing?” Kay hissed.

“Finding out what they’re up to.”

“Oh yeah because they’ll immediately drop everything and tell you,” Kay said sarcastically.

“That’s the plan,” Lily snickered, as Remus, Sirius, and James slowly and cautiously walked over to them.

“What’s up?” Remus asked.

“What are you guys planning?”

“You mean besides the usual ruining your life?” James snickered.

Lily gave him a look and rolled her eyes. “Sod off, Potter. I don’t think I was talking to you.”

“Yeah well I don’t think I particularly needed my day to be ruined by coming over here and arguing with you,” James sneered, giving her an annoyed look.

“Then why are you over here?” Lily shot back, crossing her arms firmly.

“Because Remus is an idiot.”

Kay and Sirius both laughed, but quickly shut up at the looks on their friends’ face.

“Well I’m sorry if I can actually have a civil talk with Lily,” Remus muttered.

“‘Civil’ and ‘Lily’ _don’t_ belong in the same sentence,” James argued.

“Just like ‘smart’ and ‘Potter’ don’t either, unless you’re talking about what a smart- _ass_ you are,” Lily shot back, giving him a self-dignified look. 

“So, what are you guys planning?” Kay prodded, hoping to change the subject away from the bickering match between James and Lily.

“Nothing,” they all replied quickly and simultaneously, looking anywhere but at the two girls, which pretty much told Lily they were planning something, most likely harmful.

“That nothing sounded awfully like a something,” Lily declared, giving them a pointed glare.

Remus shrugged. “With these two, you can never really tell what they’re saying.”

“HEY!”

Lily laughed with the others but cut it short when a thought entered her mind. “Hey, Sirius, can I ask you a question?”

Sirius flashed her a grin and ran his fingers through his hair. “Yes I really am this good-looking.”

Lily rolled her eyes and threw a pillow at him, to which accidentally hit James instead (“Dude, don’t get me involved.). “That wasn’t what I was going to ask but I’ll inform all the drooling girls I pass in the hall, ‘kay?”

“Perfect! Man, I knew being friends with you would come in handy someday,” he snickered.

“If I hadn’t already thrown that pillow, you’d be getting hit with it right now.”

“You mean _James_ would be getting hit with it,” Sirius snorted, along with the others.

Lily made a face at him and rolled her eyes. “Can I ask you my question now before I am interrupted again by another one of your pathetic antics of making all of the women in this school kneel before you and kiss your feet, while undeniably worshipping the ground you walk on?”

Sirius hesitated and faked heavy thinking. “Hm…that idea _does_ sound better, but I guess I’m willing to answer one small question before we get a move on with _that_.”

Lily rolled her eyes again. “You’re pathetic.”

“Ask the question,” Sirius snickered with a rather friendly grin on his face.

“Why do you and Riley hate each other so much now when at this time two years ago you guys were so close?”

Sirius was not expecting that question. He froze, his grin turning immediately into a shocked frown, and looked away from all of the curious faces that were staring at him. He crossed his arms awkwardly and let out an exasperated sigh. He bit the inside of his lip nervously and focused on the lamp on the table in front of him in order to keep his cool.

“Well?” Lily demanded.

“Yeah, I’d like to know, too,” Kay dared to include.

James and Remus obviously were very curious as well, the way they were staring intently at Sirius, but they have learned not to ask Sirius that any more. The last time they brought it up, Sirius turned them both into pigs and kept them like that overnight. 

“So…you don’t know?” Sirius asked calmly, not surprised that Riley didn't tell them.

Lily and Kay shook their heads. 

“I thought _Gilmore_ would have told you,” he sneered angrily, finally daring to look at them with his eyes for of resentment and anger.

Lily exchanged a worried glance with Kay, not enjoying the look on Sirius’ face. “Uh…well sh-she didn’t which is why we’re, uh, asking you,” Lily stuttered nervously, feeling very uncomfortable at the moment.

“Well good luck trying to get it out of me; I’m sure these two-“ nodding in the direction of James and Remus, “-will entertain you with the details from the last time they tried to get it out of me. Now if you need me, I’ll be in my room plotting the many ways I can ruin Gilmore’s life through this partnership I unfortunately have to put up with in Advanced Transfiguration,” Sirius snarled angrily, giving one last glare at Lily and Kay and stalking upstairs like he previously mentioned. However, instead of plotting ways to ruing Riley’s life, he chose to think excessively about their night they had together right before Christmas Break two years prior.

Lily and Kay turned towards James and Remus with questioning looks on their faces.

“He turned us into pigs,” Remus offered.

“And kept us that way,” James continued. 

“All night.”

“We missed breakfast the next morning.”

“Didn’t have time to shower.”

“Almost missed Potions class.”

“And I felt the need to roll in mud for the rest of the day!”

Lily and Kay exchanged looks and burst into laughter. “Man, I’m sorry I missed out on that!” Lily howled with laughter.

Every time Kay glanced at the guys, she went into another giggling fit. “The many pictures I would have taken…and posted around the school.”

James and Remus glared at them. “We know the hex,” Remus growled.

“Don’t think we won’t use it on you two,” James scowled. “Actually, that idea sounds pretty good right about now.”

Kay and Lily exchanged looks and burst into laughter again. Getting up from the couch and skipping over to the girls’ dormitory. Before she ascended them, Lily turned around and cried out, “Oink, Oink!”

“I think we’re going to regret telling them that story,” Remus muttered.

James shrugged. “Yeah, well what can a few harmless girls to do us that we can’t do worse right back?”

Remus laughed. “Well you’ve certainly got the role of the sexist, chauvinistic pig down straight.”

James gave him a look. “I’m not saying that men are better than women. I’m saying that the Marauders are better than anyone.”

“Okay, then you’ve certainly got the role of the macho, superior jackass down straight.”

James laughed. “That’s better.”

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

“I am so going to win this game,” Sirius said with a grin the next evening, playing Exploding Snaps with Remus.

“Oh please. When was the last time you won Exploding Snaps against me?”

Sirius thought about it. “Uh…er…”

“See?”

“Well, I’m going to win now.”

“Fat chance!” 

“Hm…why do fat chance and slim chance mean the same thing?”

Remus stared blankly at him.

“OH MY GOD, you’ll never guess what Professor McGonagall just told me!?” James cried, practically prancing into his dorm room.

“Oh thank God, I really thought I would have had to answer Padfoot’s question,” Remus snickered, ducking from a pawn sent at his head.

James jumped on to the bed where Remus and Sirius were playing and laughing enjoyably, all thinking how nice it was to be back at school.

“AGH!” Remus cried as the cards exploded and his eyebrows got singed. He turned to glare at James. “Must you scare the cards like that?”

James gave him a sheepish grin and jumped back to the floor with the same excited look on his face. “Sorry, but this is much more important than-“

“Being burnt to death?” Remus cried.

Sirius laughed but quickly turned it into a coughing fit at the look on Remus’ face.

"Allergies," Sirius lied with a sheepish grin. 

“Oh please. You can’t die from that game; don't be overdramatic,” James said nonchalantly. “Anyway, guess what she told me?”

“That the fifth doctor caved and now they’re _all_ recommending Trident?” Sirius teased. 

“That you don’t have to do rounds for the rest of the year?” Remus said logically, rolling his eyes at Sirius.

Sirius threw a pillow at him. “That Transfiguration is a pointless class and we all get top marks?”

“That Dumbledore is retiring and she’s taking over as Headmistress?”

“Ooh! That there’s no longer a curfew and we can hex the Slytherins all we want!!”

James gave him a look. “I said guess, not wish.”

“What? It could happen,” Sirius said with a shrug.

Both Remus and James gave him a doubtful look.

“Well you asked me to guess! You should have known I’d say something like that.”

“I’m surprised it wasn’t something sexual,” Remus teased.

“Ahh, well that was my next guess,” Sirius said with a grin. “That sex becomes mandatory and you need a certain quota by the end of the year to graduate.”

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re extremely perverted?” Remus snickered.

“Of course; it’s one of my greater qualities,” Sirius said, leaning back on his bed in satisfaction.

“Can we get back to me here??” James demanded, finally throwing his bag on to the floor and glaring at his friends.

“Jeez, someone’s self-centered today,” Sirius muttered. But with a worsened glare from James, Sirius said quickly, “I mean, so what did she tell you?” 

“I’ve been made Quidditch Captain!” James screeched.

“No way! Congratulations!” Remus said.

Sirius jumped up off the bed with his fist in the air. “YES! No more early morning practices!!”

James gave him a guilty look. “Well actually…we start practice this Saturday at eight.”

“God damnit, do I get _nothing_ out of this?” Sirius groaned, slapping the palm of his hand against his forehead as he slumped back on to the bed.

“You get me pestering you to wake up every Saturday morning for the next couple of months,” James grinned.

Sirius gave him a look of horror, and quickly crawled over to Remus, grabbing his robe and begging, “Oh please, don’t make him do it! I can’t wake up at seven-thirty on a Saturday morning! That’s like…like…immoral or something! Please keep me away from him, Moony! I’ll be your bestest friend in the whole entire world!”

“You already are my bestest friend in the whole entire world and don’t you want to win the Quidditch Cup?” Remus snickered.

Sirius hesitated. “Well yeah…but it’s not worth my Saturday mornings!”

Remus turned to James, pushing Sirius off of him. “Good luck with this one.”

“Thanks. I’ll desperately need it.”

“I think I’ve just been insulted,” Sirius pouted.

“And I think you’ve finally realized how to use that thing some people call a brain that was apparently sitting up in your head for the past seventeen years that you claim you know nothing about,” Remus teased.

Sirius glared at him. “I can’t help it if the space inside my heads enjoys cobwebs and dust more than knowledge.”

“Well good luck trying to get a job in the future off of cobwebs and dust,” Remus snickered.

“Aren’t you supposed to be on my side?”

“To what exactly?” Remus snickered. “If I supported you and kept James away from you on Saturday mornings then you wouldn’t play Quidditch and then you’d kill me for being forced off the team. A.k.a. lose-lose situation.”

“Okay that’s it; you’re going to have to start acting dumb around here. I can’t deal with all these smart people!” Sirius complained. “I could deal with you being a prefect. But now Prongs is Head Boy!? What the hell is happening to the Marauders?”

“We’re getting smarter,” James interjected.

“Well use that intelligence on playing pranks! Not getting back at me!” Sirius groaned. “I think I need to find new friends.”

“Well okay, but good luck finding guys who will attempt to understand your sexual innuendos and your pathetic excuse for a sense of humor,” James laughed.

Sirius glared at him. “Have I mentioned lately how much I hate you?”

“No, you’re about five minutes overdue.”

“Well then I hate you.”

“Why thank you. Now I think I heard the girls walking down to the commons room when I was rushing through there. Come on, let’s go be our usual obnoxious selves,” James said, glancing at the mirror to fix his glasses.

“Alright! Have I mentioned lately how much I love being your best friend?”

“No, you’re about an hour overdue.”

“I love being your best friend!”

“Somehow I think Lily, Riley, and Kay think differently,” Remus muttered as he followed his friends out of the room and downstairs.

 


	6. Of Hufflepuffs, Quidditch, & Cupcakes

**A/N** : Sorry it's been so long!  I had the end of school and then I was away, but no more waiting: here's the next chapter.  


 

**Tears on the Balcony**

By ByeByeBirdie

Chapter 6: Of Hufflepuffs, Quidditch, & Cupcakes

 

“Well, well, well,” a deep, intrigued voice from beside Lily, as she walked into Herbology class on Friday, uttered amusedly. 

Lily turned to her right and shut her eyes, groaning. “Back off, Hemingway.”

Trent Hemingway feigned shock and gasped lightly. “Miss Evans! How dare the Head Girl treat a fellow student with such vengeance!”

Lily glared at him. “What do you want?” she growled.

“I just wanted to congratulate you on becoming Head Girl,” Trent praised, with a sardonic half-witted grin on his face.

“How come I doubt that’s all you wanted to tell me?” Lily murmured repressively, glancing around the room and observing that Professor Janosy was not there.

“Well, I was certainly wishing that I could be working side-by-side with you instead of that half-witted reject, James Potter,” Trent pressed on, winking playfully at her. 

“Well, that’s one thing we agree on,” Lily muttered under her breath, gripping her books tighter out of anger, rolling her eyes and trying to pass him to continue on to the back of the room where her friends sat.

“And I bet you’ve put a lot of good use into your private Head Girl room,” Trent smirked. “Specifically your bed……for more reasons than just sleeping.”

Lily clenched her jaw tightly and tightened her grip even more around her books, her knuckles as white as sheets. She turned around and gave him a phony, innocent smile, playing along. “Yeah…it’s just too bad you’ll never be given the chance to know just how much fun my bed is.”

Trent smirked. “That’s what you think…”

Lily glared at him, her eyes blazing with displeasure. “Trent Hemingway, you are such a pigheaded pervert who just can’t seem to stick his own head far enough up his ass to see the fuckin’ realization that not every girl in this goddamned school wants to be manipulated by you into bed…me included.”

Trent shrugged, not taking any offense to it all. “Maybe you’d like to stick something up there instead, Carrot Top.”

Lily would have exploded with anger except that she knew that’s exactly what Trent wanted. Instead, she stayed calm and shot back, “I told you I wouldn’t be sharing my Head Girl room with you at anytime, and I’m a woman of my word.”

“We could use my room then,” Trent said, flashing a sickening smile of enticement at her.

“Or you could get out of my way.”

“And why would I do that?” Trent smirked, winking at her.

“Because if you don’t, I’ll do _this_ ,” Lily said firmly, kneeing Trent right in his private region.

Trent practically fell over in pain, immediately crying out in agony, dropping the books he had in his hand on to the floor.

The few people who were watching gasped in absolute shock that the Head Girl would induce such pain on another seventh-year. 

“Oops…it slipped,” Lily leered, with a satisfied grin, walking with her head held high to where Riley and Kay were sitting talking to a Hufflepuff friend of theirs, Alice Fisher, ignoring the stunned looks on everyone’s faces in the room.

Riley, Kay, and Alice were cracking up already when Lily approached them. “I can’t believe you did that!” Kay said. 

“That was truly priceless,” Alice admitted. 

Riley grinned and patted Lily on the back proudly. “Did you see the look on Trent’s face when you did that!? He was so shocked!”

Lily shrugged. “That was such an impulse reaction, I was surprised about it myself. However, it felt so good.”

Riley laughed and high-fived her. “Merlin, people will be talking about that for so long.”

Lily shrugged. “Good. Then maybe Hemingway will realize I’m not some ideal goddess-figure for him to yearn after every time he sees me walk into a room.”

Kay gave her a sympathetic shrug. “That’s just the way he is, Lily, and you know it.”

“Yeah, you should be flattered,” Alice snickered, rolling her eyes and glancing frustrated over at Trent who was now practically rolling on the floor. “Trent Hemingway only chooses the really gorgeous girls to go after so he’ll make a name for himself one day. I think he’s hooked up with all of the girls he planned on except for you. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so persistent with a girl the way he is with you, Lily.”

“That’s only because he knows he’ll never get me,” Lily murmured angrily. “I sure wish he’d learn to back off, though. I’m getting quite annoyed with his petty comments about us sleeping together.”

“Well if you really want him to back off, you’ve just got to have sex with-“

“RILEY GILMORE!” Lily cried, glaring at her. “If you finish that sentence, I’m throwing you out the window tonight when you fall asleep.”

Riley laughed. “I was only kidding, Lily.”

Lily made a face. “I know…I just don’t even want to think about that.”

“It’s too bad it’s not some other guy that’s cute and funny and…and…and _gorgeous_ ,” Riley said, staring over Lily’s head at something else.

Alice, Lily, and Kay turned around to see her staring at noneother than Rhett Davies, one of the most popular guys in the school who was actually sensible and respectable.

“Like Rhett?” Alice smirked. “Good luck with that one.”

Riley gave her a look. “Oh come on. Are you telling me that if Rhett Davies started flirting with you, you wouldn’t jump at the chance to flirt back?”

“Oh, I would _totally_ flirt back. Any levelheaded, prudent girl in this school would flirt back!” Alice laughed.

“And most would jump into bed with him,” Riley said with a laugh.

“Most already have,” Lily corrected.

Riley grinned. “Yeah…isn’t it great?”

Lily rolled her eyes but laughed anyway along with the rest of them. 

“Well you could always ask Janine how she was able to snag him,” Alice declared, nodding in the direction of her high-maintenance, flighty roommate, Janine Carlson, who Alice hardly had anything in common with.

Riley snorted. “Oh please. I know how she snagged him. It was exactly the same thing she did to capture my brother’s attention last year and Sirius Black’s attention just last May: she wore a short skirt, a see-through top and bent down in front of the guy in order for them to goggle over her breast implants before they would whisk her away to somewhere private!”

Alice laughed. “Yeah, that does sound like Janine.” 

On the other side of the room, in the way back, the Marauders were having quite a different conversation than the girls were. And besides their conversation, they were all just simply lounging around with their feet on the desks and their books on the floor, not trying to be proper in any way.

“Hm…” Sirius said, looking at his quill.

“What?” Remus asked, his head on the desk.

“Well…if the number 2 quill is so popular why is it still just the number 2?”

Remus lifted his head and stared blankly at him, along with James and Peter.

“So, Remus, when’s the next full moon?” James said, successfully changing the subject. 

“Two weeks from Thursday,” Remus was explaining, laughing at the look on Sirius’ face.

“So, you going to the hospital wing Wednesday evening?” Peter asked.

“No, Thursday morning.”

Sirius looked at him, shocked. “Thursday?”

Remus shrugged. “I’ve been able to go through a day before the full moon without feeling too tired for about a month now.”

Sirius grinned gaily. “That’s _great_! This means we get to spend some more time with our old pal Moony!”

“So explain the great part,” Peter kidded.

Remus gave him a look, but couldn’t help but chuckle at how thrilled Sirius was for him. It felt so good to have friends who cared so much about him that they were honestly excited to see that Remus was beginning to feel better on the days before transformations. 

“We should celebrate you being with us the day before a transformation next Wednesday night,” Sirius said, grinning. 

“I’m not going to a strip club.”

Sirius pouted. “Party pooper.”

"I'd rather be a party pooper than the guy who _says_ party pooper," Remus snorted. 

“Hey, who’s that guy that Evans is conversing with?” James asked, trying hard not to stare at the tall, blonde-haired guy and Lily interact.

Sirius, Remus, and Peter stopped their conversation about Remus and his transformations and swiveled themselves in their chairs to see what James was talking about and why he cared so much.

“Trent Hemingway,” Remus said immediately with a shrug. “Why?”

James shrugged indifferently. “No reason. Just curious as to why she hates him almost as much as she hates me.”

“Jealous, are you?” Remus smirked.

James glared at him. “Don’t make me hurl, Moony.”

Remus laughed. “Then don’t sound so upset about her being angry at another guy.”

“I just want to know the reason why she hates that guy,” James muttered. 

Sirius gave James a sideways glance and then turned his head back to where Lily and Trent were. “Well…what makes you think she hates him?”

James smirked. “Because she’s glaring at him so much I’m surprised her eyeballs haven’t popped out of their sockets yet. And besides that, she’s gripping her books almost as tightly as she does when I’m around her and she’s playing with a strand of hair like she does when she’s extremely infuriated …”

Remus chuckled. “I never noticed how she did that, but you’re so right.”

“I’m just interested in how _Prongs_ knows that,” Sirius asked intriguingly, raising an eyebrow at his friend.

“Shut up, Padfoot. It’s because I have to deal with her almost every second of every day and since we’re not exactly fans of each other, she’s almost _always_ playing with her hair.”

Sirius shrugged. “I wasn’t saying anything different.”

James gave him a look.

“Okay, so maybe I was insinuating it.”

They all smirked and Sirius shrugged. “Okay, so maybe I was never good with subtlety.”

They all laughed. 

“So who is he anyway and how come I’ve never seen him around?” James dared to ask.

“He’s a prefect who is overly competitive when it comes to girls and very gung-ho about his schoolwork,” Remus explained.

“And besides that, he’s such an arrogant jerk who believes that he comes from the best high-profile family there could be enough to fight with someone who states otherwise—I’m surprise he actually has friends,” Sirius added with a shrug. “He almost killed Augustus Rookwood last year when Rookwood said that Trent’s father was nothing but a Minister of Magic wannabe who only obtained money through panhandling on the streets.”

James smirked. “That sounds like something that—OHH!” James shouted, throwing his hand to his mouth as he watched Lily knee Trent in the private area.

All four of them winced, turning away from the pain Trent was oppressing. 

“Ouch…that has _got_ to hurt,” Peter muttered.

“Dude, I’m not so sure someone deserves so much pain,” James admitted.

“Well, you’re Head Boy,” Sirius pointed out. “Go take points off or something. Besides, it would be interesting to see what excuse Lily-bean came up with.”

James glared at him. “Shut up, Padfoot.”

Sirius laughed. “Only trying to help.”

“Well you’re not.”

“Well, I’d go give her a detention if I were Head Boy, James,” Sirius said huffily. “We all witnessed it and I don’t think she should get away with that.”

Remus rolled his eyes. “You just want to see Lily riled up, Sirius.”

Sirius grinned. “No, that’s just an added bonus. That girl is _hott_ when you ruffle her feathers a bit." 

Remus gave him a quick fierce look and turned back to James. “Just go over to her and ask what happened.”

James laughed. “Yeah, because I’m sure Evans would gladly tell me all of the details of her personal life, is that right, Moony?”

Remus didn’t answer.

Sirius shrugged. “So go threaten her a little and then see if she caves!” 

James glared at him, but ended up choosing to take Sirius’ advice and figure out what went on by innocent threats. He stood up and slowly walked over to where the girls were busy chatting about how arrogant Trent was.

Lily saw him approaching and rolled her eyes. “What do you want, Potter?”

“I want to know what the hell just happened since I am Head Boy and I do have the power to take points off and give you a detention,” James smirked.

Lily glared at him. “You think I’m going to tell you what he said to me?”

James rolled his eyes. “Perhaps threatening you with a week’s detention may change your mind.”

Lily dropped her jaw. “You can’t do that!”

“Actually, I can,” James said smugly.

“You are such a terrible excuse for Head Boy, Potter!” Lily cried out, gritting her teeth in fury. “You’re just using detention as a way of blackmail!”

“That’s not true, Evans. It’s simply an…added bonus,” James defended, using his best friend’s words.

Lily gave him a fixed stare and muttered something obscene under her breath.

“Look at it this way. You just took your anger out on Trent and, may I remind you, it’s strictly forbidden in Hogwarts to hurt anyone intentionally. So, therefore, I’m doing the right thing as Head Boy—which is what you’ve been telling me to do lately so really I’m just listening to you. I think it’s you who obviously needs to read her handbook again because it’s obvious you’re not setting a good example for anyone here in this school.”

Lily was already angry with Trent for the comments he made and now James was criticizing the way she used her Head Girl badge to her disadvantage, which was making her even angrier. So far, it just wasn’t a good day.

“It’s interesting that you have the guts to come over here after what I did to that low-life loser, Potter,” Lily smirked. “I did it once and I’m not afraid to do it again, even if you _are_ Head Boy, so just stay out of it.”

James shook his head. “I’m afraid I can’t do that, Evans. It is my obligation as Head Boy to get down to the bottom of things and I’m not so sure I’m going to allow you to get away with that, Miss Know-it-All. Besides…you and I _both_ know you aren’t as bad-ass as you seem so I know you wouldn’t create any more trouble than you have already caused today with that Hemingway-character.”

Lily was clenching her fists so tight, it was amazing that her nails hadn’t gone right through. She was absolutely furious with the way James was trying to benefit himself by bringing her down and she was furious with the way he was enjoying himself by doing so. But mostly, she was furious that he was right. In fact, she was simply ready to throw down her books in vehemence and rush out the door when suddenly Professor Janosy glided in, in a daze about something, muttering under his breath.

“Potter, leave us alone and go mingle with those three you call your friends,” Lily sneered, glaring at him with much heated passion. 

James glared at her and whispered back, “This isn’t over.”

“Blow me, Potter.”

James snickered. “Now, now, I know we have our own private rooms now, but did you really think I’d share my bed with-“

But before he could finish, Lily slammed her books hard on the table right on James’ hand, frightening everyone in the room.

“I _dare_ you to finish that sentence, Potter,” Lily scorned, clenching her jaw tightly in absolute disgust, staring at him defiantly, ignoring the many stares and gasps she was receiving from everyone else in the class, including the Marauders in the back, who were absolutely stunned that Lily Evans would be so provoked in less than ten minutes to strike two people.

James could only feel the back of his hand suddenly go numb and knew that she would leave a mark there, especially from the torn binding of the book that had scraped him hard. “I’m not so sure I deserved that,” James mumbled ignorantly, not expecting Lily to hear him.

“Oh, then would you like another??” Lily asked, clearly aware of what he had indeed said under his breath. “Because if you don’t start walking away now, I’ll gladly make a mark on the other hand.”

James took his hand away from her and glared at her. “You are such an uptight, heinous bitch, Lily Evans, and if I didn’t have to work with you for the rest of the year, I’d stop conversing with you just to make myself content here at Hogwarts.”

“Oh please, don’t let working with me for the rest of the year stop you from not talking to me,” Lily said, rolling her eyes. 

James glared at her heatedly. “I’m gonna find out about the interaction between you and that Trent guy if it’s the last thing I do and then I’m going to give you much deserved detentions, Evans…just you wait,” he hissed.

"Bring it on, Potter," Lily dared, glaring back at him with an equally vehement look.

"Is that a challenge?" James questioned.

Lily smiled slyly. "You couldn't beat me even if you tried."

"Watch me," he whispered as Professor Janosy had asked politely for everyone to take their seats and take out their notebooks and textbook. James wiggled his eyebrows at her before retreating back to his seat with the rest of the Marauders, who were ready to all fall asleep. 

“God, he can be such an arrogant prick sometimes,” Kay muttered, reading Lily’s mind exactly.

“Yeah, but be glad that you’re not forced to somewhat get along with him in the presence of Dumbledore during meetings,” Lily mumbled to herself, wishing with every fiber of her being that somehow James would resign and she’d get the opportunity to work with anyone else. 

&&&&&&&&&

“Please explain to me why I am at breakfast at seven on a Saturday morning?” James mumbled, stifling a yawn.

“Because you’re a moronic imbecile who decided it would be fun to go out on the Quidditch pitch an hour before practice to do some extra laps,” Sirius grumbled. “Oooh, that was easy. Gimme another.”

James glared at him.

“Maybe later?”

James continued to glare at him.

“Never’s good, too.”

“I’m thinking that when I accepted the role of Quidditch captain I didn’t realize how early seven o’clock was on a Saturday morning.”

“Oh, I realized it. And I tried to tell you otherwise but _noooooooo_ , no one _ever_ listens to Sirius Black.”

James ignored him and went back to his breakfast. “Although, I’ll admit it’s nice having all of six people in the Great Hall. Peaceful, almost.”

“Yeah and it’s nice that three of them are professors,” Sirius snickered.

James rolled his eyes and grabbed his broom off the table. “C’mon, let’s go get started.”

“Oh whoopee, can’t wait,” Sirius said dryly.

James scowled.

“I mean, YAY! I’m _so_ excited!” Sirius exclaimed feigning enthusiasm.

“Don’t think I won’t make you run an extra five miles.”

“Right. Shutting up now.”

They got out on to the Quidditch pitch, a surprisingly cold chill filling the air, and started to just warm up leisurely.

“So who was the girl last night?” James asked, a chaser on the team, running in and out of the hoops.

“What?” Sirius asked, a beater on the team, smacking the bludgers around. 

“Who was the girl that you were occupying late in your room last night?” James asked again, this time louder.

Sirius laughed. “Janine Carlson,” he replied.

“I thought she was dating Rhett Davies,” James questioned. 

Sirius snickered. “Oh _please_. She left him the moment I said hi to her yesterday. Davies has got _nothing_ compared to me.” 

James rolled his eyes, but couldn’t help but laugh. “Didn’t you try to date her two years ago?”

Sirius shrugged and flew over to where James was so he didn’t have to yell across the pitch. “Yeah. But I wasn’t trying to _date_ her last night,” he snickered.

“I’m beginning to think that everyone was right about you,” James chuckled, finishing up his hoop routine and flying over to hover next to Sirius.

“About what?” Sirius asked curiously, flying rings around James. 

“About you being a sexist womanizer,” James snickered, ducking from a bludger that Sirius immediately hit his way.

They both laughed. “And who exactly are you hearing this not-so-secret information from?”

James shrugged. “Oh you know, Evans, Riley, Kay… _every_ girl I pass in the hallways.”

Sirius rolled his eyes and stopped flying around James long enough to scowl. “And since when did you decide to join the gossip chain of Hogwarts?” 

“Don’t be silly,” James waved him off. “There is no gossip chain of Hogwarts. Hogwarts _is_ the gossip chain.”

Sirius snorted. “And here I thought it was established to be a school.”

James gave him a look. “Yeah a school for _teenagers_. They had to have thought that over the years, it would quickly change from a school into one big gossip column.”

“I didn’t realize a school that was created 1025 years ago was supposed to be on the lookout for gossip.”

“Yeah well you should know; you’re the stupid editor of that gossip column.”

“I don’t write the gossip; I _am_ the gossip,” Sirius snickered.

James rolled his eyes. “And proud of that?”

Sirius laughed, flying around James’ head to annoy him. “I can’t help it if people like to talk about me.”

“You only encourage it,” James teased.

"Well I certainly like to spread the gossip almost as much as I like being _in_ the gossip," Sirius admitted with a flippant grin. 

“Well here's a question for you: at age thirteen, did you expect to turn out like _this_?”

Sirius gave him a curious look as he put the bludger away and grabbed the quaffle, throwing it to him. James threw it back, flying around the field in preparation for the rest of the team. Eventually he asked, “Turn out like what?”

James gave him a look and held on to the quaffle, halting in mid-air. “Like _you_ ,” James snickered. 

Sirius flew over to where James had stopped and snickered. “I’m going to need some elaboration.”

James rolled his eyes. “I mean, did you ever expect that you wouldn’t want to be committed? That you would become the type to go from girl to girl? No serious dating? Just simple one-night stands? Have sex for the first time at age _fifteen_!”

Sirius snorted. “Oh please. When I was thirteen, I was stupid and naïve.”

“And things have changed how?”

Sirius gave him a look and grabbed the quaffle out of James’ hand. “When I was thirteen, I knew nothing of how the world worked.”

“You still know nothing of how the world worked.”

“Yeah but back then, I pretended to,” Sirius explained. “I mean, I planned my whole life out for me. I thought I was going to marry Gilmore, have twelve kids, become rich, buy a mansion in Soho, and retire while living happily ever after by the time I was thirty. So _yeah_ , things have changed.”

“That can still happen,” James snickered.

Sirius shook his head. “Nah,” he denied. “I don’t think Gilmore would go for the idea of twelve kids.”

James gave him a look and gestured for Sirius to throw the quaffle to him, as they continued to fly around the field. “Padfoot, if that’s what’s stopping you to go for her, then I really think you don’t have anything to worry about.”

Sirius froze in mid-air, ducking just in time as to not be hit by the quaffle. “I don’t really know how you missed this, but Gilmore and I aren’t exactly on good terms with each other.” 

James raced to grab the quaffle before it hit the ground. “I have noticed, but—and please don’t kill me for saying so—but-“

“Then don’t say it.”

James gave him an irritated look and threw him the quaffle. “You and Riles were best friends for over _four_ years. And I really don’t understand how after a week at my house for Christmas break, you go back to school and you guys are at each others' throats like you’re two-year-olds in a sandbox! What the hell _happened_!?”

Sirius rolled his eyes and muttered something incoherently. “It doesn’t matter. Let’s just say that that vision of Gilmore and me getting married isn’t going to be coming true at any point in the future.”

“So you’re just waiting around for her?”

“ _No_ ,” Sirius quickly retaliated. “I don’t wait for _anyone_. _Especially_ Gilmore.”

“You sure about that?” James questioned, ducking from a fast quaffle sent towards his head.

“Yes.”

“You sure she isn’t the reason you became the Hogwarts Casanova?”

“No, my dashing muscular body and the way my hair flips over to the side of my face like this did that.”

James laughed. “Fair enough.”

“And how the hell would she cause me to be the way I am?” Sirius asked, interested in whatever James had to say.

James shrugged. “I don’t know. I just always thought you guys would end up together. I think everyone thought that. You two were inseparable. I never imagined you two would be loathing each other like you do now. I still find it unbelievable.”

“Well, things change.”

James gave him a look. “Well gee thanks for being specific.”

Sirius grinned. “That’s what I’m here for.”

“Okay fine, don’t tell me why you and Riley went so suddenly from best friends to mortal enemies. It’s none of my business,” James explained.

Sirius let out a sigh of relief. “Good, you ready to drop this now?” 

“I still don’t understand why that vision of you two together in the future can’t come true!” James explained hastily, ignoring Sirius’ words. “All you got to do is apologize for whatever stupid thing you did and maybe-“

Sirius scowled. “What makes you think _I_ did the stupid thing?”

James gave him a look. "Because doing stupid things is what you _do_ , Sirius."

Sirius simply frowned, knowing he was right. 

“Why can’t you just grovel at her feet and beg for forgiveness??” James questioned.

Sirius sighed. “It’s just not that easy, okay?”

“What did you do then? Give her some…some idiotic Christmas gift?” James snorted.

Sirius sighed inwardly. “It was more like a birthday gift,” he muttered quietly under his breath so James couldn’t hear.

“What?”

“Nothing, don’t worry about it.”

James shrugged. “Well I rather liked it better when you and Riley were friendlier to each other; it made all of our lives a hell of a lot easier. _Especially_ mine. She’s one of my closest friends; I’ve known her since I was practically born and you hating her doesn’t help our friendship.”

Sirius shrugged. What he wanted to say was that he hardly hated Riley; it was really the other way around. But what he said instead was, “Well I’m sorry but there’s really nothing I can do about that. Gilmore and I aren’t becoming friends again anytime soon.”

“Why not? You guys were practically joined at the hip for the first four years here! It was as if you two were Siamese twins or something! _No_ one could get in the way of your friendship,” James restated in a whiny voice.

“Well obviously something did,” Sirius murmured.

“Then fix it!”

Sirius glared at him. “Prongs, I don’t want to fix it, okay? Things are fine the way they are.”

“You two erupting in screaming matches every five seconds doesn’t exactly qualify as fine.”

“Can’t you just let it go?” Sirius demanded. 

James sighed. “It’s just that…when you were friends, it made our lives much easier.”

“No, you just liked being able to spend more time with Lily,” Sirius snickered.

James smiled goofily. “Yeah, well she certainly was—HEY! No way are you changing the subject now!”

“Damn, I thought I had you with Lily-bean…I usually do.”

“I’m telling you, Padfoot. Not only were the rest of us happy that you and Riles were friends but you were a hell of a lot happier. I’m convinced she was the reason you stopped trying to commit…I don’t know how or why, but-“

“James, I don’t like commitment because of what it implies,” Sirius explained, knowing on the inside he was lying to himself. “Not because Gilmore and I started detesting each other.”

James gave him a look. “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean, I don’t want to get married. Ever.”

James gaped at him and stopped in mid-air. “But…but _why_?”

“The thought of being with one woman for the rest of my life isn’t exactly self-satisfying. In fact, it’s anything but. I like the way I live my life now and I don’t need to settle down,” Sirius claimed firmly, uncertain as to why the thought of not marrying made him feel depressed.

“But if you really love someone, you wouldn’t be settling! You’d be-“ 

“Just drop it,” Sirius snapped angrily.

James sighed and shrugged. “Fine, but not because I want to. But because the rest of the team is arriving and I have a speech prepared.”

“I have never been so glad to sit in a stuffy locker room and hear you ramble on about how we have to win this year or you might just die under the humiliation of Slytherin.”

James rolled his eyes. “Race ya,” he grinned as he quickly took a head start.

“NO FAIR!” Sirius cried, immediately catching up with him. 

And they were off to being their usually joking selves, though Sirius could not get the thought of Riley out of his head for not only the rest of practice but for the rest of the day, too, no matter how much he tried.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

James walked into the commons room that night after a mild jog around the grounds and saw Riley lying by herself on the floor near the fireplace, reading some textbook but obviously more into painting her fingernails.

“Hey Riles.”

“AGH!” she cried, practically jumping up.

James reached out and grabbed the nail polish before it spilled all over the floor. “Scared easily, huh?”

Riley gave him a look and snatched the nail polish away from him. “Someone’s sweaty and gross. You either just went for a run…or had sex.” 

James gave him a look. “Don’t make me give you a hug.”

Riley laughed. 

“So where is everyone?” James asked, choosing to lean against the stone of the fireplace.

“Around, I’m assuming,” she said shrugging, continuing to paint her nails. “I only know that Lily is in the library holding some tutoring session for a few second-years, a.k.a. torturing them. Other than that, I have no clue where they are.” She hesitated and then looked up at James. “Though I did hear Black walk through here earlier mumbling something about how he was sore all over from practice so I wouldn’t doubt if he was hiding from you.”

James laughed. “What a coward.”

“You don’t have to tell me that,” Riley snickered.

“So why are you sitting alone in the commons room at eight-thirty on a Saturday night?” James asked.

Riley sighed and tightened her grasp around the nail polish bottle. “Can’t a girl enjoy some alone time on a late Saturday night?”

“Any other girl can. _You_ can’t.”

Riley crossed her arms and glared at him. “And what exactly is _that_ supposed to mean?”

“You just always seem to be out with a new guy every Saturday night. I figured this night shouldn’t be any different.” 

Riley gave him a look and held up the nail polish brush at him. “Would you like me to paint _your_ nails?” she threatened.

James gave her a sheepish grin and slid against the stone beside her. “I’m just pointing out that I don’t see you much around here on Saturday nights.”

Riley shrugged. “It’s our first weekend here. I’ve still got plenty of time to find someone.”

“You sound a little bitter about not having a boyfriend.”

Riley looked up at him with a short-tempered look on her face. “James, when was the last time you saw me with a boyfriend?” she asked.

James paused to think about it, ignoring the piercing glare she was giving him. “Uh…I guess early last year with Zach.”

“And how long was that relationship?”

James shrugged. “I don’t know…a month?”

“Not even,” she corrected. “And name another boyfriend I’ve had besides him.”

James thought about it but couldn’t come up with anyone. “Uh…I don’t know. Didn’t you date that Harrison guy?”

Riley gave him a look. “No way!” she argued, closing the top of the bottle. “But there’s my point. I don’t need a boyfriend to make me happy.”

“But you need a boy,” he snickered.

Riley flung her bottle of nail polish at him. “You repulse me.”

“Why? Because you know it’s true?”

Riley hesitated, blowing on her nails. “Well obviously a nice fuck makes a girl happy but-“

“Oh Merlin that was too much information,” James said in disgust, shuddering at the thought.

Riley laughed. “I figured it might be.”

“So you want to spend the night at the kitchens with me stuffing our faces with junk food and then complaining about eating too many calories later on?” James asked.

Riley laughed again. “That sounds like fun but why aren’t you hanging out with Kristina?”

“She’s apparently going out with the girls tonight for, I’m sure, a fun-filled guys bashing night,” James laughed. 

Riley raised an eyebrow. “You think that’s what girls do when we get together?”

“Well other than sit around in their underwear reading magazines, giving each other facials and manicures, and playing truth or dare, yeah, that’s pretty much what you do when give the opportunity,” he said with a laugh, grabbing Riley’s hands and pulling her up to her feet.

Riley groaned. “Man you’ve got a lot to learn about women.”

James laughed. “Yeah Kristina tells me that everyday.”

Riley rolled her eyes and followed James out of the commons room. “And yet she’s still with you?” she asked teasingly.

James shrugged, and waved in the direction of a few younger Gryffindor girls that he knew that were passing him by, no doubt walking back to their house. “We have a lot in common, thank you very much.”

“Like your horniness?” Riley snickered, ducking from James’ hand swat.

“Oh yes because _you_ always find a lot in common before you hop in bed with some guy,” James ridiculed.

Riley shook her head. “‘Course not. But I’m not dating them.”

“I guess you have a point there.”

Riley grinned. “I love being right.”

“I didn’t say you were right. I said you had a point,” James protested with a laugh.

“Which I translated to mean I was right.”

James rolled his eyes. “I’m still trying to figure out why I decided to keep being friends with you even though that bully on the playground in second grade called me a woman lover after I had stupidly told him you were my best friend.”

Riley burst into laughter. “Billy Caffrey!” she cried out. 

James grinned. “Yep! He was the size of a tenth grader at the time!”

“Yet had the brain capacity of a two-year-old,” Riley snickered.

“Almost reminds me of Sirius,” James sighed with a chuckle.

“Almost?” Riley questioned. “That reminds me _exactly_ of Black.”

“Oh man. Those were the good old days,” James said shaking his head, thinking of all the memories they shared.

“Oh yeah the days where we rolled in mud, had fun torturing younger kids, threw water balloons at each other, and played the ultimate pranks on each other. Merlin those were the days,” Riley said sarcastically.

James gave her a look.

“Then again nothing’s changed over the years for you.”

James couldn’t help but laugh. “This is very true,” he agreed. “Hey you want to go find some mud to roll in?”

Riley laughed. “Y’know, I think I’m good being clean.”

James gave her a look and laughed. “Riles, you will always, _always_ be dirty.” 

Riley pushed him into the wall as she turned the corner.

“OOF!” he cried out, rushing after Riley after getting his balance back. “I’m going to pretend that was unintentional.”

“And I’m going to pretend like you’re not a clueless bonehead.”

James shrugged. “So we’re even then?”

Riley laughed. “Sure, you keep thinking that, James.”

“I liked it better when we were five and I was in charge,” James pouted.

“Oh, hon…you were never in charge,” Riley teased.

“What you meant to say was ‘well things change in twelve years.”

Riley paused. “No I like what I said better.”

James grinned. “Well, at least we’re still friends,” he replied, draping his arm around her shoulder.

Riley smiled nostalgically. “I must say that is a plus,” she said gently, wrapping her arm around his waist as they walked in sync towards the kitchen, continuing to talk about their childhood memories, causing them both lots of sidesplitting laughter.

When they reached the kitchens, and after tickling the pear, they were greeted by a surprise.

“Sirius?” James said.

Sirius dropped the cupcake to the ground and held up his arms, turning around. “I swear I wasn’t hiding from you, James!!”

Riley turned to give James a look. “I’m pretty sure that’s a lie.”

Sirius scowled. “I said I _wasn’t_ hiding.”

“Which in moron language means you were,” Riley said dryly.

“Don’t you have some guy’s life to make miserable?”

“Don’t you have some whore to snog?”

“Because that never gets old,” Remus muttered from the seat behind Sirius. “You guys want some cupcakes?”

Sirius groaned. “But _we_ made them,” he whined.

They all stared at him blankly.

“Okay so we asked the house elves to make them. It’s practically the same thing,” he corrected.

“Without having to find all of the ingredients in this huge kitchen and then all the labor that goes into making them and of course the annoying task of cleaning up,” James pointed out. 

Sirius glared at him. “Aren’t you supposed to be on my side?”

James snorted. “What side? I was just making a point.”

Sirius grinned slyly. “Well okay. And how about I make a point now?” Sirius said, throwing a cupcake in James’ face.

James froze as the cupcake slowly started sliding off his face to the floor. “You…are… _dead_ ,” he said slowly, grabbing a cup of milk on the table in front of Remus and throwing it in Sirius’ face.

“AGH!” he cried.

“Hey, that was mine,” Remus pointed out.

James grinned. “Well here have some more!” he cried, throwing the rest of the gallon in his face.

Remus spit out the milk in his mouth and let it drip on to the rest of his clothes. “That’s not exactly what I meant.”

“Aww, well do you want more?” Sirius snickered, smashing a cupcake in Remus’ hair. “Here’s a cupcake to go with your milk.”

Remus stared at Sirius blankly. “Well gee, thanks for the dessert.”

“But James is looking a bit dry, don’t you think?” Remus grinned, running to the refrigerator and grabbing a carton of orange juice.

“Don’t you dare think of throwing that at the Head Boy or you’re-“ but he was interrupted at the flow of orange juice being thrown into his face. “Dead,” he finished.

“You know who looks like she needs a makeover?” Remus grinned, turning towards Riley.

“Oh this looks like more of a Marauder thing,” Riley said, backing towards the exit. 

“Oh no, it’s more of a Whomever-Is-In-The-Kitchen thing,” James explained. “And I think someone needs a hug!”

“OH MERLIN SOMEONE HELP ME!” she cried as a dripping wet James started chasing her around the kitchen.

She stupidly ran smack into Sirius who enjoyed crushing two cupcakes on to her robes. She froze and glared at him. “Oh don’t think you’re getting away with that!” she cried, grabbing the chocolate sauce from the open refrigerator and squirting it in his direction. But he ducked and it hit Remus instead.

“AGH! What did I ever do!?”

“You got me involved in this little food fight of yours!” she said with a grin as James hopped on to her back playfully.

“Oh right,” he said, licking some of the chocolate sauce off from underneath his lip. “Ooh yum.”

“Ew!” Riley moaned, just as James cam up behind her and hugged her tightly. “EW!!” she repeated loudly. “Okay, you officially suck.”

“Speaking of sucking, where’s Kristina?” Sirius asked, wiping away the frosting off his face.

“I repeat: ew!” Riley shuddered, licking the cupcakes off her robes.

“She’s out with the girls tonight,” James explained again.

“Ahhh, so bashing on guys?” Sirius replied.

Riley sighed. “Men. Can’t live with them…can’t bury them in the backyard without the neighbors noticing.”

“Awww, how sentimental,” Remus teased, wiping away a fake tear from his eye.

“What can I say. I’m one sentimental woman,” Riley laughed.

“If sentimental means completely whacked, then yeah, I agree,” James joked, giving Riley a playful grin.

“Remind me why I’ve been friends with you for so long?”

“Because I’m perrrrrty,” James teased, batting his eyelashes at her. 

“No, that’s not it.”

“Then it must be because I’m rich and good-looking.”

“Ahhh, right, I remember now.” 

They all laughed as Sirius ordered another house-elf to make another round of cupcakes, this time for eating. 


End file.
